The Tories are celebrating tonight after Steve Barclay secured a fifth term as MP for North East Cambridgeshire.
However, he saw his majority nearly halved as the Reform candidate, Chris Thornhill came a respectable second, knocking Labour into third place.
Mr Barclay polled 16,246 votes, in 2019 he took 34,340.
In a surprisingly earlier than anticipated announcement Fenland’s returning officer Paul Medd declared Mr Barclay the winner to the delight of the watching Conservatives.
Reform polled 9,057 votes, with Labour’s Javeria Hussain taking 8,008. David Chalmers of the Liberal Democrats polled 2,716, while the Green Party’s Andrew Crawford was celebrating retaining his deposit after polling 2,001 votes.
Independent Dave Patrick took 958 leaving Clayton Payne of the Worker’s Party of Britain to bring up the rear with 190 votes.
In his acceptance speech Mr Barclay said he was “hugely honoured” to be abe to serve the area he “loves” for a fifth term and to continue the work of the past 14 years.
Commenting on his reduced majority Mr Barclay said he was still happy to achieved such a good result against the backdrop of the unfolding national picture.
Despite taking second place Mr Thornhill made a quick exit from the hall without commenting.
Ms Hussain declined an interview after turning up only moments before the result was announced.
Mr Chalmers who was jubilant having moments earlier watched his party leader Ed Davey safely returned to his seat, said he was delighted with the night both nationally and locally and declared the Liberal Democrats are once again the country’s third party and once again able to have a proper political voice.
Mr Patrick said he had not expected to win, but had thoroughly enjoyed the experience. However, he said he would not be seeking to repeat the performance in five years’ time.
“It has been a great experience, and I have given people another choice. I polled well in some areas, and not so well in others, but overall I am happy,” he said.
Mr Crawford, said he was also pleased with the way his party had performed and pointed to have far the Greens have come in the past 10 years.
He said: “Tonight we are retaining more deposits than we are losing, and that is a great result. It costs a lot of money to enter an election. We are now entering the stage to becoming a contender and are no longer the party that others laugh at,” he said.
However, he too said he would not be making another attempt in five years’ time, saying he believes politics would be for younger people.
Mr Payne was also pleased and said he was happy to have given people an alternative and that it was a building block for the future.
