Tory Nick Ramsay has held onto the Monmouth seat with more than 13,000 votes - 5,000 ahead of his nearest rival Labour’s Catherine Fookes.

Speaking at the count at Chepstow Leisure Centre a delighted Mr Ramsay said the result sent a clear message that the people of Monmouth were not prepared to be 'pushed around' by the labour government in Cardiff.

Independent candidate Debby Blakebrough she was pleased with the way her campaign had run and delighted to have made a dent in the party political system.

"I have given people a choice and raised the profile of the independents as a foundation for the 2017 local elections.It has been a very succesful campaign," said Ms Blakebrough, who added that she felt that the In/out referendum had overshadowed the Assembly election.

"It was all people wanted to talk about on the doorsteps," she said.

Mr Ramsay, an AM since 2007, won 43.3 per cent of the vote, down on 50.3 per cent from 2011 with Labour’s Catherine Fookes seeing her party’s share of the vote also fall from 8,970 in 2011 to 8,438 votes.

In something of a shock to pundits UKIP's Tim Price claimed third place with 3,092 votes and 9.8 per cent of the ballot.

Independent Debby Blakebrough finished fourth with 1,932 votes with Plaid Cymru’s Jonathan Clark claiming 1,824 votes

The Liberal Democrats’ Veronica German finished sixth with 1,474 votes and the Green Party’s Christopher Were seventh with 910 votes.

The English Democrats’ Stephen Morris finished eighth with 146 votes.