Sir Roger Gale has secured an eighth term as Herne Bay’s Member of Parliament, easily brushing off competition from Ukip and Labour.

The veteran Conservative MP was declared the winner of the North Thanet constituency at the election count at the Winter Gardens in Margate this morning.

Sir Roger has been the MP since 1983, and won 23,045 votes in total. It gives him another comfortable majority of nearly 11,000.

More significantly he will be joining a majority of Conservative MPs in Parliament.

The Tory told supporters: “Voters in this election have rejected extremism and heeded the voice of moderation to allow me the privilege of representation Margate, Herne Bay and the villages in the next Parliament.

“It’s a task I take on with humility and one that I will do my best to fulfil in the future as I have in the past.

“For the task in hand there is the issue of Manston which has to be resolved. There are local plans that have to be withdrawn. There’s the redevelopment of Herne Bay and there’s the European referendum.

“I’m pleased to say it looks like we will have a government that will be able to get that through the House of Commons.

“I look forward to working with my colleague in Parliament Craig MacKinlay to achieve all of these things.”

For a full break down of all the results in Kent click here. For the results of the Canterbury City Council local elections click here.

It was a bad night for Sir Roger’s challengers, in particular for the Liberal Democrat candidate George Cunningham. He was pushed into fifth place behind Ukip, the Green Party and Labour, losing nearly 16% of the votes his party had won in 2010.

It was also a bad night for Labour’s Frances Rehal, who was budged into third place behind Ukip. She won just 8,411 votes, down from more than 9,000 in 2010.

Before the election she had expressed her hopes to emulate Iris Johnston in 1997, who gained 18,000 votes and reduced Sir Roger’s majority to under 3,000. But Ms Rehal and Labour will reflect on the fact they have now lost more than half of the support they won in 1997.

For Ukip’s Piers Wauchope it was a good result, although like many of his colleagues nationwide he will be disappointed that his party hasn’t made a bigger splash during this election.

Although he was well short of threatening to win the seat, he did secure 12,097 votes, an increase of more than 19% since 2010.

For the Green Party’s Ed Targett it was also a positive performance. He was the first Green candidate to stand since 1992 and gained 1,719 votes.