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The defeated Conservative police and crime commissioner candidate has said she is both “disappointed” and “delighted” at the result. 

Hannah Jarvis, who was also the Conservative candidate in 2021 when she again finished in second place, said the result is encouraging for the upcoming general election – which must be held by the end of January. 

Despite missing out, Ms Jarvis, who attended the count for the result at Caerphilly Leisure Centre last week, said she was happy the Conservatives had increased their vote percentage across Gwent. 

She said: “I’m so grateful to the 21,919 voters who put their faith in me and I’m of course, disappointed not to have won, but I am delighted to have increased the Conservative vote share across Gwent and to have secured the backing of Monmouthshire residents.” 

Though the total number of votes cast in last week’s election was lower than in 2021, when Senedd elections were held on the same day, the Conservative share of the vote increased by more than 3%.

Comparisons with 2021 are also complicated as a different system was in use, where voters ranked candidates in preference order, and there were two more candidates. 

Monmouthshire was the only one of the five council areas in Gwent where the Conservatives topped the poll on Thursday, with the election run under the first past the post system.  

That will be encouraging to the Conservatives, where Welsh Secretary David Davies will be defending the Monmouth seat he has held since 2005, at the general election, with Labour having ousted the Conservative administration in Monmouthshire Council at the 2022 local elections. 

Ms Jarvis said: “Many lifelong Labour voters turned to the Welsh Conservatives at this election, to protest their dissatisfaction with Welsh Labour, which shows Labour should not take the electorate for granted and that there’s everything to play for in Wales at the general election.” 

Labour’s victorious Gwent police and crime candidate Jane Mudd told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that results, including local elections across England with the Conservatives suffering heavy losses, showed “Labour is the party the citizens of Great Britain want to put their confidence and trust in.” 

Also standing in the Gwent PCC election, which was held on Thursday May 2, were Plaid Cymru’s Donna Cushing and Liberal Democrat Mike Hamilton.