At 1.23am, Nikki Brooke told me she had counted “about 40” votes in the Heritage Party’s trays at the general election count in Pontypool Leisure Centre.
Watching candidates at an election stare at the rows of trays at a count is fascinating. Each tray is where the votes for each candidate are placed. So they can visibly see if the votes are going or not going in their favour.
Nikki was surprisingly upbeat after only spotting around 40 votes with around 90 minutes to go before the result was announced. By the time Stephen Vickers, the count’s returning officer, took to the stage to announce the result she had picked up 87 more votes.
The Heritage Party candidate for Torfaen said: “I’m actually really impressed with it. We only gave out about 4,500 leaflets and I’m kind of seeing the little votes go into my tray and I counted I think about 40 at the minute. So it’s quite a bit more than I actually expected because obviously I’m a brand new candidate.
“I’ve been out and about canvassing and people haven’t even heard of the Heritage Party or David Kurten. So I think I’ve got the votes from somewhere.
“I’m really impressed with that.
“I did it [stood as a candidate] because I was unhappy with what was happening with the Government and I didn’t see the established parties offering any different solutions or being able to change things in a way that I wanted them to change.
“So when I looked at the Heritage Party’s manifesto and looked into a bit more, they really did kind of like, their manifesto was very much in line with what I wanted the changes to be.
“I had no great illusions that I was going to win the seat by any chance but I wanted to give other people who felt like I did that opportunity to vote for a party which I feel is ethically guided and authentic, and really genuinely wanting change for people.”
Torfaen 2024 general election result
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Welsh Labour, won the Torfaen seat in the 2024 General Election.
The full result of this morning’s election count for Torfaen:
- Welsh Labour- Nick Thomas-Symonds- 15,176
- Reform UK- Ian Williams- 7,854
- Welsh Conservative Party- Nathan Edmunds- 5,737
- Plaid Cymru- Matthew Jones- 2,571
- The Green Party- Philip Davies- 1,705
- Welsh Liberal Democrats- Brendan Roberts- 1,644
- Independent- Lee Dunning- 881
- Heritage Party- Nikki Brooke- 137