The Liberal Democrats won the Guildford seat as Zoe Franklin defeated Conservative MP Angela Richardson.

Mrs Franklin was announced as the winner at 5:49am on Friday, July 5 after a count at the Spectrum Leisure Centre in Guildford.

Conservatives saw their majority more than doubled from around 3,337 votes in 2019 to 8,429. Even if Tories absorbed the Reform UK vote, they would have still been lacking thousands of votes.

A councillor for North Guildford from 2008 to 2015, Zoe is now stepping up to represent her home. Only the second Lib Dem MP in Guildford since 1910, it was certainly a historic moment. She replaces Mrs Richardson who has been Tory MP for the constituency since 2019. 

Polls closed at 10pm on Thursday, July 4 before hours of verification and counting took place to eventually confirm Mrs Franklin’s victory to loud cheers from supporters.

She won 22,937 votes, with Conservative Mrs Richardson coming second with 14,508, Reform UK candidate in third with 4,395, Labour candidate Sarah Gillinson fourth with 3,931, Green’s Sam Peters with 2,268 and John Morris of The Peace Party with 255. 

With a Labour landslide of at least 409 seats, and Lib Dems gaining 62 seats, Zoe is part of a new political landscape.

In her acceptance speech, she said “the work starts now” and that her priorities are holding water companies to account with sewage and water supply, getting more GPs and NHS dentists and scrapping the two-benefit cap. 

Also speaking after the result, Mrs Richardson said it was “disappointing but it was not unexpected”. She claimed “the die was cast long ago” and speculated issues of Partygate and Liz Truss’ mini budget.

Mrs Richardson added it was a “difficult time for the Conservatives”.