Conservative Anna Firth wins Southend West by-election
Anna Firth will replace Sir David Amess
Last updated 4th Feb 2022
Conservative candidate Anna Firth has won the Southend West by-election.
She got 12,792 votes.
The Psychedelic Movement's Jason Pilley came a distant second with 512 votes, affording the Conservative's a majority of 12,280.
There were 1,084 rejected ballot papers, some of which contained messages reflecting attitudes towards the national news, which sees Prime Minister, Boris Johnson embroiled in scandals such as 'partygate', with one writing 'Boris get out'.
None of the other major parties stood, out of respect, given the by-election was triggered after former incumbent, Conservative MP, Sir David Amess was killed at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex on October 15th 2021 during a constituency surgery.
The 69-year-old had served Southend West since 1997, and Basildon before that since 1983.
The results for each candidate were as follows:
Anna Firth (Conservative Party) 12,792 (86.10%)
Jason Pilley (Psychedelic Movement) 512 (3.45%)
Steve Laws (UKIP) 400 (2.69%)
Catherine Blaiklock (English Democrats) 320 (2.15%)
Jayda Fransen (Independent) 299 (2.01%)
Ben Downton (Heritage Party) 236 (1.59%)
Christopher Anderson (Freedom Alliance) 161 (1.08%)
Graham Moore (English Constitution Party) 86 (0.58%)
Olga Childs (No description) 52 (0.35%)
We spoke to Anna Firth's new neighbouring colleague, James Duddridge, MP for Rochford and Southend East after the announcement.