East Thanet general election full results

Thanet has gained its first Labour MP in 14 years.

Polly Billington has taken the East Thanet seat with a landslide victory of 17,054 votes - a majority of almost 7,000.

The Conservative’s candidate Helen Harrison was defeated with the party pushed into second place gaining 10,083 votes and Reform’s emergence saw it take third place.

The Greens came fourth and Lib Dems in fifth.

Turnout figures show 57.26% of the constituency voted.

Winner Polly Billington told KentOnline: “I'm delighted. I know that this is a really big thing that the people of East Thanet have done because they've put their trust in me and it's really important for me that I earn that.

“That's why I want to continue to lead and also to lead and represent them strongly at Westminster and help shape what we can make East Thanet.”

Labour is celebrating huge wins over the Tories in Kent, with the Lib Dems also picking up their first-ever seat in the county.

The victories come amid a Labour landslide nationally - putting Keir Starmer in Downing Street with a huge majority.

New Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells Mike Martin described the night’s results as a “political earthquake” in Kent.

In Kent, Labour have won 11 seats, the Conservatives have kept hold of six and the Lib Dems have gained one.

It means the Tories have lost in 10 seats in the county they previously held - and even came third in Dover, with Reform finishing second.

Ms Billington was previously based in Hackney, but moved down to the isle for her campaign.

She explained: “One of the first things I need to do is to find somewhere more permanent to live here so that I'm fully part of the community.

“I’m looking forward to it. I love every single minute that I spend here.

“It's one of the most delightful parts of the country and being surrounded on three sides by sea, one of my big priorities as well will be campaigning to clean up our sewage scandal and make sure that we can hold the water industries to account, particularly Southern Water.

“Also improving things that people have been talking about like the cost of living, improving our public services, but also shaping our economy so that it really works for people.

“Far too much of our economy is dependent basically on tourism and a short focused time during the summer.

“We know there is so much more that can be done and we need to be able to be building on that.”

Second-placed Helen Harrison, who replaced Craig Mackinlay after he felt he could not stand in the election due to his sepsis battle, said she “didn’t come to be second”.

She commented: “Obviously I'm really disappointed. I came here to win.

“I didn't come here to come second, but I have come second. But that's democracy.

“That's what the people here in East Thanet want.

“So it's time to go home, have a good sleep, have a good think about things and come back on another day and try to win it back.”

Some constituents, 167 to be exact, made their feelings clear in the form of spoiled ballots.

These include sad faces in every box, 'free Palestine' and a transwomen are men sticker.

One smiley face, in one box, was accepted, however.

Earlier in the night and before the election was called, Ms Harrison spoke to KentOnline about her feelings after crushing predictions for Tories in the latest polls.

She said: “I’ve seen the exit polls, and so I’m a realist and I don't really know yet what’s going to happen behind us.

“But, what I can say is that it has been a massive honour and privilege to be the Conservative candidate here in East Thanet for this general election.

“Under circumstances that obviously were a little sad with Craig having to step down because of this illness but he has been a wonderful support and I am so pleased that he is going to be in the House of Lords.”

Reform candidate Paul Webb was one of the first candidates to arrive at the count in Broadstairs.

He told KentOnline before the results: “Obviously I would love to be winning here, whether or not we will I don’t know but it looks like a very strong second at the moment.

“But, it’s still early in the night. We shall see.

“I’ve had a brief look and the prediction is for 13 seats for Reform across the UK.

“Considering that we’ve come from literally nowhere, that's a tremendous result. It's going to be a long night but it could be a good one for us.”

Mr Webb continued: “If Reform was to win here, it would mean that the local people have spoken.

“The Tories are being wiped out everywhere across the board. People are just not voting for the Conservatives, I think they’ve had enough.”

Conservative Mr Mackinlay, who held the constituency under its former South Thanet name made a triumphant return to the House of Commons in May following a devastating battle with sepsis when he lost both his arms and legs and made it clear he was planning to seek re-election.

But on the very same day, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made the shock decision to fire the starting pistol on a sooner-than-expected election, leading Mr Mackinlay to decide a gruelling campaign was beyond him and announce he would not be contesting after all.

Today, he was elevated to the House of Lords by Sunak and said he will use his peerage as a platform for raising awareness of sepsis.

Coined the ‘bionic MP’ during his short time back in parliament, Mr Mackinlay has endorsed his replacement saying in a recent Twitter video shot in Ramsgate: “I did my best here and I know Helen will continue the work that I did.

“She believes in all the things I believe in, so there’s nobody better to replace me.”

In 1997, decades of Tory control was relinquished as Labour took control on the back of Tony Blair’s landslide victory.

It remained red until Gordon Brown failed to do enough to hold onto power in 2010. Since then, it has been firmly Conservative controlled - although not without a few scares along the way.

When Mr Mackinlay first stood, in 2015 (replacing the short spell of Tory Laura Sandys), he had a huge fight on his hands when Nigel Farage campaigned ferociously in a bid to finally get a seat in Westminster.

Despite being the subject of huge media attention, Mr Farage failed - but he did so only narrowly with less than 3,000 votes separating them.

New MP Ms Billington has friends in high places, having previously worked as a special advisor to former Labour leader Ed Miliband and was a BBC journalist.

She says she and her party will “end the austerity, chaos and mismanagement of the last 14 years”.

Covering much of Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate, the loss of Sandwich in recent boundary changes may prove significant too, as it is traditionally Tory-leaning.

Thanet District Council also went red in 2023.

Four independent candidates were also standing tonight.

They are Paul Holton, Mo Shafaei and Grahame Birchall, who promises to make Thanet a unitary authority like Medway if elected.