THE dust created by the demolition of the Conservatives will take time to settle.

Locally, out go two stalwart Tory MPs and in come two persistent LibDem challengers.

Rebecca Pow and Ian Liddell-Grainger will be thinking they were ousted on Independence Day by their party big wigs pressing any number of self-destruct buttons.

Three Prime Ministers in five years is indicative of the chaos at the top - two were kicked out by colleagues, while there had been chatter about plots to get rid of the latest leader.

Ms Pow won three elections from 2015 onwards, serving the people of Taunton and Wellington, as well as Wiveliscombe and Bishops Lydeard, for nine eventful years.

Ian Liddell-Grainger was MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset from 2001.

We owe both a huge gratitude of thanks and they will be hard acts to follow. Being an MP is tough, stressful work - and where else do you get a fresh ‘job interview’ in front of thousands of constituents every few years?

For Gideon Amos, it was third time lucky as he unseated Ms Pow in the newly created Taunton and Wellington constituency, which had lost Wiveliscombe and Bishops Lydeard to Tiverton and Minehead constituency since the last poll in 2019.

Mr Amos attracted almost double the total votes of Ms Pow, who he had lost to in 2017 and 2019.
He had also applied unsuccessfully to stand as the LibDem candidate in the constituency in 2015.

Ironically, chosen to represent the party on that occasion was Rachel Gilmour, the daughter of a Conservative councillor who played rugby for England.

Standing in a General Election for the fourth time - on each occasion in a different constituency - Ms Gilmour defeated Mr Liddell-Grainger in Tiverton and Minehead.

Had he been chosen to stand in Bridgwater again, Mr Liddell-Grainger may well have been continuing his weekly commute to Westminster. Instead, Ashley Fox won the day there for the Conservatives.

While the Tories have got the blues, the LibDems claim to offer a new era of hope and compassion.
Congratulations to our two new local MPs. We look forward to you working hard for us. We trust you’ll put as much dedication into the job as you did in becoming MPs.