THE elusive Reform Party candidate who came third in the General Election in South Dorset - and likely contributed to Tory MP Richard Drax losing his seat - has spoken to the Echo for the first time.

Labour's Lloyd Hatton was elected as the new MP - but one of the surprises of the night was the Reform Party candidate who came third with very little known about her.

Morgan Tara Young received 8,168 votes, finishing behind new MP Mr Hatton and Richard Drax for the Conservatives.

Mr Drax received 14,611 votes, less than half of the 30,024 he received in 2019.

Labour went from 12,871 votes to 15,659, with Reform UK securing more than 8,000.

The Echo made numerous attempts to contact Ms Young before the election but did not receive any reply.

The Reform Party did not release any details about their candidate during the election.

Morgan Young's profile on the Reform Party websiteMorgan Young's profile on the Reform Party website (Image: Reform UK)

On the Reform Party website, her biography was left blank and a picture of her was not included.

Leaflets did not show her face and instead just named her.

Since the election, the party has confirmed she was a 'paper candidate' - meaning she was not campaigning in the area, but was on the ballot to give party supporters someone to vote for.

Despite this, she managed to beat Lib Dem candidate Matt Bell in the general election - and almost certainly won support from a number of people who would have usually voted Conservative.

Ms Young, a single mum, lives in Derbyshire and helps co-ordinate membership for the party at their HQ in Leicester.

She said: "Though I was only a paper candidate the 8,168 people who voted for me and Reform UK show that there is a great hunger for change and for the policies of the party.

"I am sure that come the next election there will be a good, full-time, local candidate who will do all that they can to win in South Dorset."

A Reform Party spokesman said he was not surprised by how well the party did and identified South Dorset as a target seat for the future.

He said: “Swanage and Weymouth are two seaside towns that are at the end of the railway line. They are two towns which have been forgotten.

“They are similar enough to our winning seats like Clacton and Great Yarmouth and that is why it is important to have a paper candidate.

“If we had a local candidate, I think we would have had another 4,000 votes."

He added: “The election came at very short notice, we had to ask 'Is anyone in the office prepared to stand in Dorset or London or Glasgow?'

“We thought it was important we covered as much as we could."

A report in The Guardian had raised concerns that some Reform candidates were not real people and were instead AI or CGI candidates.

The party spokesman dismissed these claims.

He said: “There are processes in an election, it is preposterous to think that anyone could be a candidate without being a real person."

Lloyd Hatton, Richard Drax and Matt Bell all declined to comment.