THE people of Forest of Dean have re-elected Conservative Mark Harper as their MP.

Mr Harper, who received 28,096 votes, said he concentrated on running a positive campaign focusing on improving local business, creating better jobs and better healthcare services for the area.

He said: “I’m very pleased the people of the Forest of Dean have given me their confidence for the fourth time to be their member of parliament with the highest share of the vote that they ever have done.

“It’s the first time I’ve received more than half of the votes cast. I’m very honoured to receive that resounding vote of confidence.

“I will do my very best to repay all of the people who have placed their trust in me and not let them down.”

He thanked his team and all those involved in the electoral process who got the count done much earlier than in 2015.

Labour candidate Shaun Stammers, who was practically unknown before the election was called, received 18,594 votes with his party seeing an increase of 6.390 since 2015.

He said: “Only ten weeks ago I was a parish councillor for Mitcheldean and a university lecturer facing redundancy and tonight we have increased the Labour vote by 50 per cent.

“Next time we will do it by 50 per cent again.

“Thank you.”

The Liberal Democrats received 2,029 votes and candidate Janet Ellard said she would like to see more women taking part in politics.

She said: “It would be rather nice to see some more ladies up on this platform the next time we have a general election.”

Green Party candidate James Greenwood received 1,241 and said his party’s ideas and policies were becoming more mainstream.

UKIP saw its vote collapse to 1237 from 8,792 last time around.

Independent Julian Burrett who ran a campaign hoping to change the democratic system and give voters more of a say in their MPs decisions received 577 votes.

He said: “What I have found is there is a genuine will and interest in a contemporary and genuine democracy.

“I’m proud it started here and I’m looking forward to the next five years to see where it goes.”

The total number of votes cast was 51,848 and the turnout for the Forest of Dean was 73 per cent.

A total of 81 votes were rejected.