The EU Referendum saw a majority vote to Leave the European Union.
The national turnout was 72.2%, which is similar, if not a little higher than the turnout seen at a General Election.
In the country as a whole the result was 51.9%-48.1% in favour of Leaving the EU. That was 17,410,742 votes for Leave and 16,141,241 for Remain; that means a Majority for Leave of 1,269,501
In the Borough of Northampton the result for Leave was 58.4%.
Personally I campaigned for the UK to Remain. However the result was clear- with over one and a quarter million more people voting to Leave the EU rather than Remain, and there is now a clear democratic instruction for the UK to break with the EU. The people have spoken! As a democratically-elected politician I will of course be following those instructions.
One effect of this result has seen the resignation of David Cameron as Prime Minister. It was David Cameron’s leadership which brought me into politics nearly 11 years ago, soon after he became Leader of the Conservative Party. He has been a Leader who persuaded lots of people who were not traditional Conservatives that they could consider voting Conservative. He won a victory in 2010 and held together a Coalition for five years. He then won the first Conservative majority in nearly 25 years, just last year.
In his six years in office as Prime Minister he has achieved record employment, robust economic growth, plunging crime, inequality is down and we have a strong economy where many other countries in Europe do not. I think he leaves a fantastic legacy.
There are now extremely challenging times ahead. I am devoted to this country and to the people of Northampton, where I was born and brought up; I promise to do all I can in the months ahead to help effect the most orderly and beneficial result for all the people I have the honour to represent.