City council apologises after errors in number of votes declared for constituency

Plymouth City Council has apologised after it emerged that the final number of votes declared for the Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency was incorrect.

Acting Returning Officer Tracey Lee said: “We have full confidence that all votes at the General Election count were counted correctly but unfortunately we have now found that the figure for the final number of votes declared for the Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency was not correct. This does not affect the result of the election.

“We have now reviewed all data and paperwork from the election and understand why this happened. We count the votes for each constituency in ‘mini count’ areas which are council wards. The votes in these areas are shared with candidates and agents at each stage of the process to ensure complete transparency.

“These figures were correct but an error in a spreadsheet meant that the 6,587 votes from one of these areas, Efford and Lipson, were not included in the final declaration sheet for the Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency.”

Lee said the final figures for the constituency should have been:

• Danny Bamping, Independent: 237 (difference 24)
• Henrietta Bewley, Liberal Democrat: 1,244 (difference 138)
• Oliver Colvile, Conservative Party: 20,476 (difference 2,670)
• Richard Ellison, UK Independence Party (UKIP) 1,364 (difference 216)
• Luke Pollard, Labour and Co-operative Party: 27,283 (difference 3,475)
• Daniel Sheaff, The Green Party: 604 (difference 64)
• Total number of votes: 51,208 (difference 6,587)
• The number of ballot papers rejected was 83 (no difference).
• The updated turnout figure for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport was 66.97%

 Lee said: “This means that Luke Pollard’s majority has increased by 805.

“We are very sorry that this error has happened. We are making all paperwork and data available to the Electoral Commission and to candidates and agents to inspect.”