Jacob Rees-Mogg has praised the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who, at the time of writing was set to win the General Election with a large majority, as his seat was returned to him in North East Somerset in the early hours of Friday morning.

Rees-Mogg won with 28,360 votes, followed by Labour’s Mark Huband, with 13,631 votes, Lib-Dems’ Nick Coates, with 12,422; Fay Whitfield (Green Party) with 1,423, and Shaun Hughes (Independent) with 472. 169 votes were rejected, with a 76.64% turnout.

As seen at the local hustings recently, Jacob Rees-Mogg attracted a huge amount of media attention; with his wife and eldest son watching the result, and them all being ushered out of the hall very quickly afterwards, protected from a media scrum.

Addressing the crowd, he said: “I obviously want to thank my campaign team, who have been absolutely superb; including my family, who have been at the forefront of efforts, with some healthy competitive spirit between some of my sons.

“My greatest gratitude goes to the Prime Minister, who has managed to win this victory for the Conservative Party and to ensure that he can deliver on the promises that he has given; and I think that his leadership, his inspiration, has been of enormous importance to the Conservative Party up and down the country."

He added that canvassers had been thoughtful of local residents, deciding not to knock on doors in succession of one another. He said it demonstrated "a wonderful spirit in which things are carried on in Somerset".

[It demonstrates] “The friendly relations that go on between people that can differ very much in their beliefs, but nonetheless can show goodwill and try to ensure that constituents are not unduly bothered during a period of an election, and so I want to thank all of the candidates for that, and for the spirit in which they have fought this campaign.

“But it is a triumph for Boris Johnson and the best night for the Conservatives since 1987, and I think that the greatest thanks go to him for leading his party to such a great success.”

More on this story, including pictures and quotes from other candidates, in next week’s Journal and online via our social media channels @MNRJournal