STROUD has gone from blue to red overnight with a shock win for Labour’s David Drew, who clinched the seat from Conservative Neil Carmichael with a tiny majority of just under 700.

While the constituency is famed for the production of bold red fabric Stroudwater Scarlet, the seat had been a dominant shade of blue with Carmichael holding a solid 4,866 majority.

David Drew held the seat as MP for 13 years, losing his seat in 2010 to Mr Carmichael and falling short again in 2015, but the Stroud Labour Party chairman’s success takes his head-to-head with the Conservative to 3:2.

His win comes as a shock to many after most polls, except the SNJ and Gazette readers’ poll, predicting that Neil Carmichael would retain the seat.

Drew bounced from retirement to reclaim the seat with 47 per cent of votes (29,994), 687 ahead of his Conservative rival and a hefty 5,553 vote swing.

He said: “It’s the seventh time I’ve done this, I should retire more often!

“I never thought I would come back and be a winner, but the people of Stroud have had their chance and had their say.

“I think maybe now the prime minister will be thinking about her position.

“We now need to pull together as a community in Stroud and nationally after the attacks in London and Manchester.

“I’m not ever in something for the short term, and I’m delighted to go back to Westminster, there is a lot of work I had left unfinished.

“Education cuts are a real concern, damage done to the children centres is something I will take up with the county council, health services are in dire need of attention and we need to get more jobs back into the Stroud constituency.

“I’m surprised but it is now important to take stock and get some good governance back into the country.”

Stroud News and Journal:

Conservative Theresa May remains prime minister after calling the shock snap-election, but it was not a smooth ride with ‘strong and stable’ up against Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘for the many, not the few’.

Despite remaining leader of the largest party, calls have been made for her resignation after failing to obtain a majority government, with a hung parliament leaving all parties vying for governance and murmurs of another election on the cards.

Manifesto pledges, U-turns and interview gaffs saw poll gaps narrow between the Conservatives and Labour on the national stage.

The exit poll signalled what was to come last night, with a predicted 17 seat loss for the Conservatives, 34 gains for Labour, six for the Lib Dems, and 22 losses for the SNP.

Conservative Neil Carmichael, who had been Stroud MP for the past seven years, announced that despite the loss he would not be stepping away from the parliamentary contest and aims to reclaim the seat at the next election.

He said: “I don’t think it was the right time to call a general election, hopefully there will be another one soon and I will fight hard and hope to win.

“You haven’t heard the last of me, next time I intend to win.”

“Obviously I’m disappointed, I want to win again.

“I think this result signifies some pretty challenging times ahead.

“The next few months we face big issues including the economy and what to do about Brexit and here we are wondering whether we have a government that has a majority.”

Stroud News and Journal:

This year’s election saw a minor bump in turnout at 68.5 per cent a 2.3 per cent rise from 2015.

The Stroud constituency continues to have a considerably higher turnout than the national average at 77 per cent, a three per cent increase from 2015.

Only Labour and the Conservatives retain their £500 deposit with the Lib Dems, Greens and Ukip all failing to achieve the required 5 per cent share of the overall votes.

This met early predictions that the contest would be a two-horse race with the other parties facing a harsh squeeze on their votes.

There was a ‘national resurgence’ for the Liberal Democrats, winning a further four seats (as of 5am) in parliament, while this was only 3.2 per cent of the vote in Stroud, the party jumps from fifth to third place in the constituency.

Lib Dem candidate Max Wilkinson said: “I’ve felt like an intruder in a marriage that has gone slightly wrong.

“This is a Lib Dem resurgence, we’re back in third and I think when we get to 2045 and it is Drew versus Carmichael 17 we will be in with a chance.”

Stroud News and Journal:

The Green’s and Sarah Lunnon earned a reduced share of the overall turnout at 2.2 per cent.

It was suspected that the party would double their representation in parliament through Molly Scott-Cato in Bristol West but this was not to be.

Sarah Lunnon said: “Many people in Stroud District have not voted for their first preference.

“All the candidates have stated how they would like a change to the voting system and we also need to defend our natural world.”

Stroud News and Journal:

Ukip’s Glen Gogerly saw his party’s vote heavily reduced and drop from third to fifth with a mere 1.6 per cent of the vote, a 6.2 per cent drop from 2015 and an echo of the national result.

He said: “I’m most proud to be able to stand for the people in Stroud who wanted to vote Ukip.

“It is important that people are able to vote for the party they believe in.

“Ukip has a really strong future and I will return to fight with for them.

Stroud News and Journal:

Over in the Cotswolds, the seat which includes Minchinhampton, Wotton-under-Edge and Kingswood, Conservative Geoffrey Clifton-Brown retained his seat in convincing style with triple the votes of his nearest rival, Labour’s Mark Huband.

This victory sets the ardent Leave supporter on track to hold the position for three decades.

Labour snatched a surprise second place ahead of the Lib Dems, with drastic reductions for both the Greens and Ukip.

As of 5am the national results showed Conservatives would fall short of a majority with a hung parliament on the table.

A dominant display was shown by the two leading parties, earning 82.4 per cent of the overall vote, with the Conservatives ahead by just 1.6 per cent.

This handed them 271 seats, Labour 240, SNP 33, Lib Dems 10, Democratic Unionists 10, Sinn Fein 7, Plaid Cymru 3 and one other.

The final results are as follows:

Stroud:

Labour - David Drew – 29,994 votes – 47 per cent

Conservatives – Neil Carmichael – 29, 307 votes – 45.92 per cent

Liberal Democrats – Max Wilkinson – 2,053 votes – 3.2 per cent

Green Party – Sarah Lunnon – 1,423 votes – 2.2 per cent

Ukip – Glen Gogerly – 1,039 votes – 1.6 per cent

Overall turnout: 77 per cent

Overall votes: 63,816

Cotswolds:

Conservatives - Geoffrey Clifton-Brown - 36,201 votes – 60.6 per cent

Labour - Mark Huband - 10,702 votes – 17.9 per cent

Liberal Democrats - Andrew Gant - 9,748 – 16.3 per cent

Green Party - Sabrina Poole - 1,747 – 2.9 per cent

Ukip - Chris Harlow - 1,197 – 2 per cent

Independent - Sandy Steel – 107 – 0.3 per cent

Overall turnout: 74.4 per cent

Overall votes: 59,702

National figures listed in this article are as of 5am – these may have altered by the time all results are announced.