THE election for the Wiltshire and Swindon Police and Crime Commissioner will have to be re-run after the favourite Jonathon Seed won the election by a landslide 41,929 votes.

Mr Seed, the Conservative candidate, polled a total of 100,003 first and second preference votes to win the election.

He announced that he would have to withdraw after being disbarred by the Tory Party HQ in London because of an historic 30-year-old drink driving conviction.

The conviction in 1993 was an imprisonable offence although Mr Seed was not sent to prison at the time he was convicted.

PCC rules mean that Mr Seed would have been ineligible to stand even if he had declared it on his nomination form.

Other candidates have asked Wiltshire Police to investigate. Officers will be looking to see if he knowingly made a false statement.

If tried by an Election Court (part of the High Court) and found guilty, he could be punished by being fined or sent to prison for up to one year.

Mr Seed said he was "bitterly disappointed" to withdraw and insisted that he believed he was eligible to stand for the role to oversee the Wiltshire Police force, having declared the conviction in 2011 and again in 2018.

He said: "To the best of my knowledge and belief when I applied for, and became the Police and Crime Commissioner candidate for the Conservative Party in Wiltshire and Swindon, I was an eligible candidate.

"I have declared my thirty-year-old driving conviction to the Party in my applications both to be a Parliamentary candidate and more recently a PCC candidate."

In a letter to Terence Herbert, the police area returning officer, Mr Seed appears to suggest that he had been told by Tory party officials up until the evening of Thursday’s election that his conviction did not disqualify him from the PCC election.

He wrote: “I sought and received assurance from the Conservative Party that I was not disqualified by reason of this conviction. At all times up until the evening of 6 May the advice given to me by party officials was that I was not.”

Mr Seed said he had “now taken specialist legal advice” and found the advice given to him by the Conservative Party was wrong. It is not set out when this specialist legal advice was taken.

In a separate press statement, Mr Seed said: “As may be expected in matter like this, relating to a public election, I am informed that the police have now opened an investigation. I welcome this, and will, of course fully cooperate.”

The Liberal Democrat candidate Liz Webster finished second with a total of 58,074 first and second preference votes.

The results of the first preference votes are as follows:

• Junab Ali (Labour): 34147

• Julian Malins (Reform UK): 4348

• Brig Oubridge (Green): 16606

• Mike Rees (Independent): 31722

• Jonathon Seed (Conservative): 84885

• Liz Webster (Liberal Democrats): 35013

The total number of valid first and second preference votes cast for the remaining candidates is:

• Jonathon Seed (Conservative): 100,003

• Liz Webster (Liberal Democrats): 58,074

Terence Herbert, Wiltshire and Swindon Police and Crime Commissioner Area Returning Officer, said: “The election count for the Wiltshire and Swindon Police and Crime Commissioner has been completed today at Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre in Salisbury, and Jonathon Seed, the Conservative Party candidate, has been declared as the winner.

“The result of this election marks the culmination of a long and busy weekend for our hard working staff, who have managed a COVID-secure election across 348 polling stations in Wiltshire, and counts for 98 Wiltshire Council unitary divisions; 63 city, town and parish elections; and the PCC election.

"I’d like to thank them all for all their hard work during the past few months. They are true public servants.”

The council’s Head of Paid Service will be considering the next steps to take following this election after taking appropriate legal advice.

Other PCC candidates have called for Wiltshire Police to mount a criminal investigation into Mr Seed's nomination and decision to stand.

They have been left reeling from the news tax-payers may have to fork out up to £1.4 million for another election.

Mike Rees, who is running for the role as an independent, has said there “needs to be consideration” given into a criminal investigation into Mr Seed’s actions.

Mr Rees said that Mr Seed has made a “complete farce” of the process – where candidates must pay £5,000 to run.

Liz Webster said: "Jonathan Seed has treated Wiltshire and Swindon residents with total contempt. He has betrayed their trust, wasted their time and a vast amount of public money.

“Re-running this election will cost‎ tax payers £1.4m, require residents to go to vote again and deny our tired elections staff their well deserved break. All of that is an absolute disgrace.

“I am ready to fight again to be a powerful voice for the victims of crime, champion our dedicated police officers and staff, and to take the action needed to make our communities safer and bring law breakers to justice.”

All election results are available on the Wiltshire Council website: https://elections.wiltshire.gov.uk/Home/Results