Lee Anderson, the former deputy chairman of the Conservative party, has held on to his Ashfield constituency, in his new Reform UK colours. Anderson topped the poll in the constituency, winning 17,062 votes ahead of Labour’s Rhea Keehn, on 11,553.
The leader of Ashfield District Council, Jason Zadrozny, came third with 6,276 votes. The Conservatives Debbie Soloman polled just 3,271 votes – a disappointing result which mirrors a disastrous night for the Conservatives across the country.
The Green Party’s Alexander Coates came fifth, with 1,100 votes and the Liberal Democrats Daniel Holmes finished last with 619 votes. The Liberal Democrat result in Ashfield isn’t reflective of the huge gains the party is expected to make across the UK. The Lib Dems use a highly targeted approach to campaigning. The ITV/BBC/Sky News exit poll predicted they would end up with 61 MPs.
As expected from earlier polls, Labour are predicted to win a landslide, with the exit poll giving them 410 seats, with the Conservatives down to 131. Reform are predicted to win 13 seats – and Lee Anderson’s victory in Ashfield is the first to be won by Nigel Farage’s party.
