THE Conservative and Labour parties increased their General Election vote in each of the area’s four constituencies as smaller parties were squeezed.

The big losers were UKIP whose vote dropped between nine and 15 percentage points, although the Greens, Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru also saw their vote drop.

The sitting MPs – Conservatives David Davies in Monmouth, Mark Harper in Forest of Dean and Jesse Norman in Hereford and South Herefordshire, and Labour’s Jessica Morden in Newport – all returned to the House of Commons.

The Conservatives increased their share of the vote between four and eight percentage points while Labour’s share was up between 10 and 16 per cent.

Mark Harper increased his share of the vote to 54 per cent – up eight per cent – although his majority over Labour’s Shaun Stammers was cut by 1,485 votes to 9,502.

Mr Stammers delivered a 50 per cent increase in the Labour vote – up from 12,204 in 2015 to 18,594.

In Monmouth, David Davies saw his vote increase to 26,411 – 54 per cent – from 23,701 while Labour’s vote also increased from 12,719 to 18,205.

Jesse Norman took 60 per cent of the vote in Hereford and South Hereford to gain a majority of 15,013 over Labour’s Anna Coda who came within 100 votes of doubling her vote of 2015.

Jessica Morden took 57 per cent of the vote in Newport, increasing her majority over Conservative Natasha Ashgar by 3,298 to 8,003. The Conservative saw her vote increase from 9,585 in 2015 to 12,801.

Speaking in the early hours of Friday after the count in Cinderford, Mr Harper said he was pleased to have been elected for the fourth time and with the highest share of the vote in that time.

He said: “It is the first time I’ve received more than half the votes cast with around 54 per cent and I’m very honoured to have received that resounding vote of confidence and I will do my very best to repay all those people who have placed their trust in me. 

“I ran a positive campaign focused on continuing to campaign for local businesses creating good local jobs and on campaigning for better health services in the Forest of Dean and I will continue to run a positive campaign in my time in this next Parliament.”

Mr Stammers said the results had been very positive locally and nationally for Labour.

He said: “Only 10 weeks ago I was a Mitcheldean parish councillor and a university lecturer facing redundancy.

“Today we have increased the Labour vote by 50 per cent.”

Lib Dem Janet Ellard said that she hoped to see more women on the platform when the next General Election results are announced.

James Greenwood for the Green Party said more of the party’s policies were becoming mainstream.

Independent Julian Burrett, who stood on a programme of getting voters more involved in Parliamentary, said he was “proud” a movement for “a contemporary and genuine democracy” had started in the Forest.

UKIP’s Ernie Warrender thanked those running the election.