Former backbencher Jeff Sousa was surprised to lose his seat — but conceded the One Bermuda Alliance had failed to get its message out.

While he said he hoped the Progressive Labour Party would take advantage of the recently completed National Training Plan, he accepted that the public had put its faith behind the PLP.

“The people of Bermuda spoke, and we need to listen,” he said.

“It was a tough loss, but if you look at the overall election, the people of Bermuda have obviously spoken and they didn’t want to continue with the OBA.

“We have to honour that, look at doing what’s good for Bermuda and hope that the current government will continue the great work we did in putting the economy and tourism back on track, because basically that is why we were elected in 2012.”

Mr Sousa, who won his Warwick West seat with the OBA’s 2012 General Election victory, fell to PLP candidate Dennis Lister III in one of several high-profile losses by the OBA.

Going into the election, Mr Sousa was confident he was going to hold on to the seat, noting his work in the constituency.

However, he said the OBA had struggled to deliver its message, and needed to better listen to the public.

“I feel we did a lot right,” he said. “There’s do doubt about it that in many regards our public relations was not working. I do believe we got better towards the end of our term, but at the beginning that was a talking point.

“Now as a team we need to reorganise and look at our way forward.”

He said he regretted saying before ballot counting started that it would be a “miracle” if he lost, explaining that he had been overconfident.

“If I hadn’t been having my clinics for the last seven years, if I wasn’t in the constituency every day, if I hadn’t been canvassing every day, then I wouldn’t have made that comment.

“The people spoke, and it was only 12 votes, but a loss is a loss.

“I will continue to work in this area. I am in Warwick West seven days a week. If you count my grandchild, my family have spent seven generations in this constituency. I will not stop working for the people of Warwick West.”

Mr Sousa did note improvements in the tourism sector, including new hotel development and visitor arrivals, and said the America’s Cup had exposed millions to the island’s beauty.

“Right now, I have never seen Bermuda as busy as it has been in 2017,” he said. “That’s good. We want to keep that going.”

He also noted progress on the creation of a National Training Plan, saying that the second half of the plan was recently completed.

“It’s ready to be rolled out, and I hope that the current government follows through with that,” he said. “That is a document that should not be put on a shelf. It should be a living, breathing document.”

And he said the move to develop the Ag Show as a public-private partnership had kept the popular annual event running without affecting government’s bottom line.

“We have saved the taxpayers of Bermuda hundreds of thousands of dollars a year as we are raising that money from the private sector, and I’m hopeful that will continue,” he said.

Mr Sousa also congratulated Mr Lister on his election. He said that he had only met the PLP candidate at the polling station, but was pleased to see young people getting involved in politics.