Tory heartland turns multi-colour

Labour's Heidi Alexander was elected as MP for Swindon South while her party colleague Will Stone was elected for Swindon North

A county which had a Conservative MP for every seat has turned multicolour.

Dubbed a Tory heartland, Wiltshire was a Conservative stronghold.

But now Labour MPs have taken two seats, while the Liberal Democrats now have three.

BBC Wiltshire's political reporter Dan O'Brien said: "The county had been a sea of blue for years. Not anymore."

The first Conservative loss of the evening came from Swindon South, where the former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who had held the seat since 2010, was beaten by Labour's Heidi Alexander.

She won with 21,676 votes, while Sir Robert came in second with 12,070.

Thanking residents in his speech, Sir Robert said "our very political system is at crossroads".

Later, speaking to the BBC, he also said he was "fed up with performance art politics" and he wanted the Conservative party "to come back to the ethos of doing stuff well".

Meanwhile, Ms Alexander said it was the "honour of my life to have been elected to represent my home town".

"I'm a Swindon girl, born and bred and I can tell you this, I'm on a mission, a mission to restore pride and opportunity," she added.

For Swindon North, Conservative Justin Tomlinson was also unseated by Labour's Will Stone, with Mr Tomlinson, a former minister for disabled people, saying it had been a "dreadful night" for his party.

Gains for the Lib Dems

Brian Mathew beat former minister Michelle Donelan to be elected MP for the newly formed Melksham and Devizes seat

In Melksham and Devizes, former Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Michelle Donelan, was beaten by Liberal Democrat Brian Mathew, who celebrated his win with his dog Heidi.

The newly formed constituency encompassed part of Ms Donelan's old seat of Chippenham.

After the result was declared at Trowbridge County Hall, Ms Donelan left for the car park, where members of her team objected to cameras filming her departure.

Chippenham also turned from Tory blue to Lib Dem yellow, with Sarah Gibson telling the BBC she was "elated" to be the person picked for the job.

She won the seat with 22,552 votes, with Conservative candidate Nic Puntis coming in second with 14,414.

She told BBC Radio Wiltshire that she was "excited" to be able to support those living in the constituency who are living in the "pockets of deprivation".

Liberal Democrat Sarah Gibson said she was "elated" to take up the job of MP for Chippenham

South Cotswolds, which had one of the highest turnouts in the country, was taken by Liberal Democrat Roz Savage.

Ms Savage beat Conservative James Gray, who had been a Conservative MP for North Wiltshire since 1997, and was standing as the candidate for the newly formed South Cotswolds seat.

The new seat, which takes in almost half of the old Cotswold constituency - including Cirencester and its surroundings such as Lechlade, Fairford and Tetbury.

It also includes Kingswood near Wotton-under-Edge (not be confused with the Bristol district of the same name) and many parts of North Wiltshire such as Malmesbury, Cricklade, Castle Combe and Minety.

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There were some successes for the Conservatives too, with both Andrew Murrison retaining his seat for South West Wiltshire and John Glen, holding onto his position in Salisbury.

While Andrew Murrison, who has represented the area since 2001, was celebrating his win, he acknowledged the evening had not gone that way for many of his party colleagues across the country.

“I’ve seen a large number of colleagues and close friends lose their seats – they will be a great loss to their constituents," he told the BBC.

Close colleague of the former prime minister Rishi Sunak, Salisbury MP John Glen said he was "absolutely thrilled" to be re-elected especially after "the toughest campaign" he had fought.

His nearly 20,000 majority in 2019 was whittled down to just under 4,000, blaming the fate of his party on party-gate and failings of the Liz Truss era.

Andrew Murrison retained his seat in South West Wiltshire

In East Wiltshire, Conservative Danny Kruger nabbed the win but did not shy away from commenting on the difficulties his party have faced in the polls.

He told the BBC: "It's really plain we've just lost this election because millions of our voters left us to vote for Reform. There's no other possible explanation.

"We should have made some different decisions, particularly around our policy on migration.

"Too many people felt, in my view fairly, that we haven't gripped the challenge of illegal and legal migration."