South West Devon remains blue but with a new MP following the decision of Sir Gary Streeter not to stand again after representing the constituency since 1997.

Conservative Rebecca Smith has been elected with almost 18,000 votes.

In her speech she paid tribute to her supporters, her family and her faith.

She said she was pleased to bring some femininity to the trio of Plymouth area MPs.

Rebecca was born at Freedom Fields Hospital in Plymouth.

She is a committed Christian and a graduate of the University of Southampton with a degree in Modern History and Politics.

She worked in Brussels, returned to the area to work with Plymouth City Council’s Homelessness Team then worked in public service in London including the Shadow Justice Team in the run up to the 2010 election.

Rebecca returned home in 2015 and has been a Councillor representing Plymstock Radford since 2018.

The new MP said it was “brilliant “ to win and thanked all her fellow candidates for fighting “a clean campaign”. The result followed more than a year of “working really hard”.

She said she would work positively and constructively for the people of her constituency which includes Plympton, Plymstock, Ivybridge and villages within West the South Hams and West Devon.

The areas had been “brilliantly served” by Conservative MPs Sir Gary Streeter and Sir Geoffrey Cox, who is has been retained in the Torridge seat which is now combined with Tavistock, over many years and she said she would work with “honesty, decency and integrity”

She said she is looking forward to taking her work on Violence Against Women and Girls to Westminster and added: “I am most grateful for the trust you have put in me to serve your community.”

The final results were Rebecca Smith (Conservative) 17,916 votes

Sarah Allen (Labour) 15,804 votes

Steve Horner (Reform UK) 9,361 votes

Julian Brazil (Liberal Democrats) 5,551 votes

Lauren McLay (Green Party) 2,925 votes

Alan Spencer (Independent) 438 votes

Ben Davy (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) 141 votes

Darryl Ingram (Heritage Party) 106 votes

The turnout was 67.48 per cent