THE Liberal Democrats have won an historic victory in North Devon by comfortably taking the seat in a fifth consecutive general election.
The party's candidate, 48-year-old Nick Harvey, was declared the winner of the constituency in the early hours of this morning with a total of 24,305 votes, giving him 47.3 per cent of the vote and a 5,821 majority.
Mr Harvey, who lives in Horwood, near Barnstaple, first won North Devon for the Lib Dems 18 years ago, in 1992, and he held the seat in 1997, 2001, and 2005. He was the odds-on bookmakers' favourite to win again this year.
And, as in all those previous elections, the Conservatives were once again beaten into second place, this time polling their lowest number of votes for many years.
This year the Tory candidate, local businessman Philip Milton, was the runner-up with a total of 18,484 votes, a 35.9 per cent share of the vote.
Speaking after the general election result was declared to cheers from a crowd of party supporters at the North Devon Leisure Centre in Barnstaple at 3.20am, Mr Harvey, who is the Lib Dem defence spokesman, said: "I would like to thank the people of North Devon for putting their trust in me and asking me to serve as MP for another term. It's a great honour to do this job."
Mr Harvey thanked his campaign team, particularly local councillor Joe Tucker, but he warned that North Devon should be "apprehensive" about a possible Conservative victory in the national election.
Mr Milton said after the result was declared: "With the resources we had available we fought the very best campaign we could. It's clear from the result a bit of tactical voting took place and that's our problem."
And he said the Conservatives had "really worried" the Lib Dems in North Devon judging by the scale of the Lib Dem campaign effort locally.
UKIP were in third place with 3,720, their best ever placing in North Devon.
Labour's candidate Mark Cann was fourth with 2,671 votes. It was the first time in many years that Labour had not been in third place in North Devon.
All the other candidates polled well below 1,000 votes each.
The Green Party was fifth, the British National Party (BNP) sixth, independent candidate Rodney Cann seventh, the English Democrat Party eighth, and the Communist Party ninth.
There were nine candidates in North Devon, one of the longest lists ever locally.
The full results were:
Nick Harvey (Liberal Democrat): 24,305
Philip Milton (Conservative): 18,484
Mark Cann (Labour): 2,671
Steve Crowther (UKIP): 3,720
Rodney Cann (Independent): 588
L'Anne Knight (Green Party): 697
Nigel Vidler (English Democrat Party): 146
Gary Marshall (British National Party): 614
Gerrard Sables (Communist Party): 96
All candidates paid a £500 deposit to stand and that is lost if the candidate polls fewer than 5% of the votes cast. Only the top four candidates retained their deposits.
There were 82 spoiled ballot papers.
There were 84,719 electors in North Devon for this year's general election and and the majority, 51,412, visited local polling booths which were open in the constituency between 7am and 10pm on Thursday. Turnout was 69% per cent.
About 14% of votes were cast by post, the highest number ever.
Mr Harvey won North Devon for the Lib Dems in 1992 (majority: 794, 1.36%), in 1997 (majority: 6,181, 11.28%), in 2001 (majority: 2,984, 6.1%), and in 2005 (majority: 4,972, 9.57%).
Mr Harveys’ total number of votes were 27,414 in 1992, 27,824 in 1997, 21,784 in 2001, and 23,840 in 2005.
The Conservative vote in North Devon was 26,620 in 1992, 21,643 in 1997, 18,800 in 2001, and 18,868 in 2005.
The Tory share of the vote in North Devon was 45.73% in 1992, 39.48% in 1997, 38.2% in 2001, and 36.33% in 2005.
For full general election coverage see next week's North Devon Journal.
The Torridge and West Devon election results will be counted and declared on Friday morning.
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