A Vote for Change
PAUL MCLAUGHLIN
Helena Dollimore is the new Member of Parliament for Hastings and Rye. The Labour and Co-operative Party candidate topped the poll in the General Election with 19,134 votes to defeat the incumbent Conservative, Sally-Ann Hart, to win the seat with a decisive majority of 8,653. It was the largest winning margin achieved by any party in this traditional bell-weather seat in over 40 years.
Labour’s Winning Team
Lucian Fernando of Reform UK came in third, ahead of Becca Horn of the Greens and Guy Harris of the Liberal Democrats, with the three other candidates: Phil Colley (Workers Party – For Britain, For Gaza), Nicholas Davies (Communist Party of Britain) and Paul Crosland (Independent) all failing to secure the 5% of votes needed to save their £500 deposits.
Voter turnout of 60.8% was broadly in line with the national average of 59.9% but was markedly down on the two previous elections here where 67.4% of people voted in 2019 and with 71.6% voting in 2017.
The full result of the election was as follows:
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Percentage |
| Helena Dollimore | Labour and Co-operative Party | 19,134 | 41.61% |
| Sally-Ann Hart | Conservative | 10,481 | 22.79% |
| Lucian Fernando | Reform UK | 7,401 | 16.09% |
| Becca Horn | Green Party | 5,761 | 12.53% |
| Guy Harris | Liberal Democrat | 2,586 | 5.63% |
| Phil Colley | Workers Party – For Britain, For Gaza | 362 | 0.78% |
| Nicholas Davies | Communist Party of Britain | 136 | 0.29% |
| Paul Crosland | Independent | 129 | 0.28% |
The result of the election was declared at 4.21am after a long and exhausting night at the Horntye Park Sports Complex, off Bohemia Road. In her victory speech, Helena Dollimore said it was “the privilege of my life to be elected as the Labour member of parliament for Hastings and Rye.” She paid tribute to her predecessor, Sally-Ann Hart and, in particular, to her commitment to support the victims of domestic abuse. Looking to the future, she said she would “focus on the priorities of all her constituents and work to deliver the change the people across the country had voted for.”
Ms Dollimore headed off to Westminster the following week for a series of inductions and introductions, security briefings and party meetings. She was formally sworn in as a Member of Parliament on Wednesday (10 July) after standing in a seemingly endless line before finally taking the Oath of Allegiance to the Crown.
The new MP is in the process of setting up her team in Westminster. She is also establishing an office in Hastings and Rye to use as a local base for her staff to address the concerns and problems of constituents.
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