AS A rollercoaster election night drew to a close, Paul Clark topped off a Labour hat-trick for the Medway constituencies.

After the Tories demanded a recount to contest the first count’s slender 272 lead in favour of the Labour candidate, the second count came back and endorsed Mr Clark’s position as MP for Gillingham with 18,367 votes.

Mr Clark is now spending his first day in his third term with a 254 majority over runner- up Conservative candidate Tim Butcher, who notched 18,367 votes.

The race for the Gillingham seat was dubbed “too close to call” only hours before results were announced.

Liberal Democrat candidate Andrew Stamp took 6,734 votes ahead of UKIP’s Craig MacKinlay, who got 1,191 votes and Independent Gordon Bryan got 254 votes.

Mr Clark said during the count: “This is a seat that the Conservatives have to win if they want to become the next Government. At the moment, it’s just too close to call. It really could go either way. I’m not nervous, I’m numb.”

Both the major parties had fought tooth and nail to grab the Gillingham constituency as it was such an important seat.

The election night began at the Black Lion Leisure Centre in Gillingham.

All three Medway seats were close and hotly contested and as the drama unfolded it seemed like the Tories were going to grab at least one of them.

But, as the recount was completed the Tories were noticeably deflated and their Labour opponents jubilant as they celebrated holding all three seats.

Following the announcement, Mr Clark launched an attack on Tory Tim Butcher for his absence during a series of public debates leading up to May 5.

But he praised all the candidates for their “reasonably fair” campaign.

Mr Clark has held the seat for three elections since the famous Labour landslide victory in 1997.

And early on Friday morning he took a familiar step forward to rapturous applause as the results for his constituency were returned

Mayor of Medway Cllr Su Haydock returned the votes for the Gillingham constituency in a first for Medway.