General election 2019: Delayed Isles of Scilly count declared

13 December 2019

The final count in the 2019 General Election has been declared after being delayed by bad weather.

Votes from the Isles of Scilly could not be counted until the papers were collected by boat and taken to the largest island, St Mary's.

The collection, which had been due to start at 01:00 GMT, was hampered by strong gales.

Tory Derek Thomas held the St Ives constituency with an increased majority of 4,284 over the Liberal Democrats.

Having left Bryher and Tresco, the ballot boxes travelled by jet boat to St Martin's and St Agnes on Friday morning.

Bryher Campsite

Jet boat Cyclone collected the delayed ballot boxes

The results were declared at Truro Leisure Centre at about 14:40.

Mr Thomas polled 25,365 with Andrew George trailing behind with 21,081 votes.

Labour's Alana Bates got 3,553, the Green Party's Ian Flindall polled 954 and Liberal Party candidate Robert Smith got 314.

The Common People's John Harris won the support of 132 voters.

Cornwall Council decided against using a helicopter to bring the ballot boxes to the mainland

Votes from the Isles of Scilly are added to those from the rest of the St Ives constituency.

The result from St Mary's is phoned through to the count at the Carn Brea Leisure Centre in Camborne.

The constituency is frequently one of the last to declare in the country and in 2015 was the final result announced.

The islands have an electorate of 1,660 and the seat was settled by 312 votes in 2017 when the Conservatives won.

Following the 2017 election, Cornwall Council was given a directive by the Electoral Commission to improve "timeliness of declarations".

Elsewhere in Cornwall five Tories were re-elected to their seats.

George Eustice won Camborne and Redruth while Cherilyn Mackroy was elected for Truro and Falmouth.

Scott Mann held his seat in North Cornwall, as did Sheryl Murray in South East Cornwall and Steve Double in St Austell and Newquay.

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