By Teddy Coward, Investigations Editor
The South West team secured 77 per cent of the vote in Gibraltar.
Luke Stagnetto, who is from Gibraltar, was part of the South West team who won 77 per cent of the vote in the Overseas Territory.
The 21 year old candidate was positioned sixth on the Liberal Democrat regional list, and was not made an MEP due to the proportional voting system used.
Speaking to Epigram, the Bristol student said: ‘It’s been wonderful to have had the experience, to have made the contacts I’ve made, and to be able to represent Gibraltar in the South West and locally.
‘I’ve had interviews with German and Dutch press – being able to spread our message as Gibraltarians around the world has been quite fantastic.’
Stagnetto was involved heavily involved with the Liberal Democrat's campaign, particularly in Gibraltar, where the team won 7,220 votes of the 9,331 cast, the best result across the UK.
He added: ‘Locally it was wonderful, 77% of the electorate [in Gibraltar] backed me, backed the Liberal Democrats, which is difficult to express how grateful I am that people went out and voted for me, it’s something wonderful.
‘In the South West in general, we’ve gone from, in 2014, not having a single Liberal Democrat MEP to having two Liberal Democrat MEPs, so that’s, infinity times two more than we had.
‘We ran a very positive campaign, we did lots of canvassing in person; we knocked on over 80,000 doors in the South-West; our campaign team worked tirelessly in order to try and achieve the result and we’re just glad it’s paid dividends.’
#EuropeanElection2019 Huge congratulations to @LibpartyGib, particularly JosephGarcia & @lukestagnetto - 77% of the vote. Now there’s a target to aim at troops!
— Simon Hughes (@SimonHughes) 26 May 2019
Reflecting on Stagnetto’s electoral success, outgoing President of UoB’s Liberal Democrat Society, Max Langer, said: ‘Winning 77 per cent of the vote is a huge achievement in any election, let alone your first as a candidate. This result was instrumental in getting two Lib Dem MEPs elected in the South West and denying Farage the other.
‘We can’t thank Luke enough for his hard work and this sure won’t be the end of his successes. The University of Bristol’s Liberal Democrat Society are extremely proud of Luke’s success and look forward to working with him next year to help more Lib Dems in Bristol’s local elections.'
Featured Image: Liberal Democrats / Johnny Bugeja
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