The voting for the powerful position of Chairman of the Defence Committee of the House of Commons (HCDC) was :

Round 1 count :

James Arbuthnot MP 210 ; Patrick Mercer MP 176 ; Dr Julian Lewis MP 114 ; Douglas Carswell MP 76

Voting was by Alternate vote system, so Carswell dropped out and his second preference votes were redistributed

Round 2 count :

James Arbuthnot MP 236 ; Patrick Mercer MP 189 ; Dr Julian Lewis MP 132

Lewis then dropped out

Round 3 count ;

James Arbuthnot MP 273 (53%) ; Patrick Mercer MP 245 (47%)

Arbuthnot now having over 50% of the vote was declared elected.

Interesting to note that 58 MPs didn't vote down to their third choice...

Congratulations to James Arbuthnot MP, who had served as Chairman in the last Parliament and who had been nominated by Labour members of that committee. He had been a Minister of Defence in the pre 1997 Conservative Government.