A former soldier has been elected as the Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), in another boost for the Conservatives.

The Conservative candidate for the role of PCC, Giles Orpen-Smellie, who served for 34 years with the parachute regiment, was elected on Saturday.

Speaking after the event, Mr Orpen-Smellie said he was delighted with the result, saying the public had embraced Conservative ideals.

"I am conscious that as the PCC I am going to be representing the whole of Norfolk, regardless of political colour and political idea - I will honour that idea to represent everyone."

Mr Orpen-Smellie said he had a "huge number" of ideas for his time in office but first he has to get sworn in.

Mr Orpen-Smellie beat out his nearest rival, Labour's Michael Rosen, by 50,442 votes in the second round of voting.

In total, Mr Orpen-Smellie received 119,994 votes, Mr Rosen 69,552.

The first round saw no candidate get more than 50pc of the vote, which meant under the supplementary vote system the bottom three candidate's votes were redistributed to second choices.

After the first round, the votes were:

Giles Orpen-Smellie (Cons) 103,980 (45.08pc) Michael Rosen (Lab) 51,056 (22.14pc) John Crofts (Lib) 31,666 (13.73pc) Martin Schmierer (Green) 23, 469 (10.18pc) David Moreland (Ind) 20,473 (8.88pc).

Mr Rosen said despite the result he was still feeling positive.

"There's no Labour collapse here, we've increased our vote in this election, I think it's a good day for Labour.

"For the next PCC election, I think it would be great if we can keep on campaigning the way we have been getting our message out to people and letting them know that Labour is a real alternative here."

Martin Schmierer, the Green Party candidate said the result showed a positive trend for the party in Norfolk.

"Almost 10pc of the vote is really positive enforcement of the message we've been putting out, about tackling the underlying causes of crime, about tackling issues such as drug dealing.

"Those issues came up time and time again on the doorstep."

A controversial figure in the lead up to the elections, David Moreland, the independent candidate, said he had been attacked by the media and the other parties.

Mr Moreland, who served in the Met Police force, said he has also offered his experience to Mr Orpen-Smellie, but had not yet heard back.