91�ȱ�

Conservative candidate and former MP for Newbury Laura Farris says it has been a “disappointing night” for the party.

“When you take a heavy defeat you need to obviously really, really carefully reflect on what’s gone wrong,” she tells 91�ȱ� Radio Berkshire.

She says she thinks some of the infighting in the party in recent years “made it look like politics was not in the service of the public”, which made things difficult, particularly for new MPs.

She adds it is “important there’s a change of government from time to time” in pluralistic societies.

The new Labour MP for Earley and Woodley, Yuan Yang, says she is "tremendously happy" with the result.

As a former Financial Times journalist and economist, she told 91�ȱ� Radio Berkshire that Labour's - and her - top priority is tackling the cost of living and "getting the economy back on track".

Labour's Yuan Yang, a former Financial Times journalist, has won Earley and Woodley with 18209 votes, beating the Conservatives' Pauline Jorgensen with 17361 votes.

The Liberal Democrats, Greens and SDP were third, fourth and fifth respectively.

Patrick O'Hagan
Political reporter, Berkshire

It’s almost neck-and-neck between Labour’s Yuan Yang and the Conservative’s Pauline Jorgensen in Earley and Woodley.

There are around about seven, maybe eight hundred votes between them.

Pauline Jorgensen says that’s enough to have some batches recounted.

But there are a full 800 votes between these two candidates so all the bets are that Labour are going to take this off the Tories.

The 91�ȱ�'s Katie Tyler says: "Conservative candidate for Maidenhead, Tania Mathias, has arrived at Braywick Leisure Centre as counting continues.

"She looks extremely calm, but didn't want to comment on how the evening is progressing until after the declaration is made."

The seat was previously held by former prime minister Theresa May from 1997.

Clive Jones won Wokingham with 25,743 votes, beating the Conservatives' Lucy Demery into second place. She won 17,398 votes.

Reform's Colin Wright came third with 5,274 votes. Labour's Monica Hamidi and the Greens' Merv Boniface were fourth and fifth respectively.

Turnout was 72.2%.

Liberal Democrat Clive Jones is Wokingham's new MP.

It has been held by the Conservatives for decades.

Previously Tory MP John Redwood held it from 1987 until his retirement earlier this year.

Labour's Tan Dhesi has been re-elected as the MP for Slough.

He has held the seat since 2017.

Labour's Peter Swallow has won the seat, beating the Conservatives' James Sunderland, who won the seat in 2019.

University lecturer Dr Swallow beat the Tories' James Sunderland by just under 800 votes.

But Reform won 7,445 votes, with Mr Sunderland winning 13,999.

Dr Swallow won 14,783 votes for Labour.

The 91�ȱ�'s Neranjana Elapatha at the Slough count says turnout in the constituency was 53.4% on Thursday.

That's lower than at 2019's general election, when it was 59%.

Matt Rodda, who won Reading Central with a majority of 12,600 over the Conservatives' Raj Singh, said he was still trying to take in his victory.

"It's a huge win for us in Reading. I'm so grateful to local residents for putting their trust in me and it's a great tribute to our Labour team: the council, other supporters, who have been fantastic throughout the campaign but I'm trying to take it all in," he said.

"There's been a real desire for change and people have expressed their views. That's the fundamental reason: the public wants to see a change of government."

Image source, UK Parliament

Matt Rodda has won Reading Central - a new seat at this election - for Labour.

He was previously the MP for Reading East from 2017 until earlier this year, when it was abolished in boundary changes.

Ed Farrar in Bracknell says the count is a "little nervy".

"There's plenty of muttering from both the Conservatives who have held this seat since it’s inception and the Labour team heavily favoured in the polls," he said. "I asked Labour candidate Peter Swallow how he was feeling. ‘We’ll see’ was his rather polite way of avoiding me."

The 91�ȱ�'s Alex Meakin at the Newbury count reports that turnout - at 68.3% - is down in that constituency.

It was 71.9% within the constituency's previous boundaries back in 2019.

Clive Jones, the Lib Dems' candidate for Wokingham, said he was "very pleased" when the exit poll published at 22:00 showed that he is expected to take the seat from the Conservatives.

"We have run an extremely good campaign, a positive campaign. We've been working very hard for nearly two and a half years since I was selected as the candidate,” he said.

Mr Jones was previously the leader of Wokingham Borough Council.

He added: "We've spoken to loads and loads of residents and knocked on loads and loads of doors and I've personally spoken to over 10,000 Wokingham residents. I was quite shocked when I was told that two or three weeks ago.

"I would say I've been quite excited for some time thinking that we were doing the right things. We were knocking on lots of doors, we were talking to people about issues that were really concerning them: the state of the NHS, sewage in our rivers, the cost of living crisis."

Patrick O'Hagan
Political reporter, Berkshire

No-one wants to say for sure but in the last few minutes I've had conversations with several Liberal Democrat councillors here in Wokingham who say they're convinced they're going to take the parliamentary seat from the Conservatives.

Not only that, they also think that by the time this count is over people -including them- will be surprised by just how wide the margin of victory will be. Their candidate Clive Jones is due to arrive here shortly.

John Redwood was the Conservative MP for Wokingham from 1987 until earlier this year.

Our reporter at the Bracknell count, Ed Farrar, says that it has been announced that turnout was 61.4% on Thursday.

That's down from 68.6% at the last general election five years ago.

Tory MP James Sunderland is looking to keep the seat he's held since 2019.

Patrick O'Hagan
Political reporter, Berkshire

Labour agents and campaigners who we've spoken to at the Wokingham and Earley and Woodley counts say they have been told not to do any interviews with the media until their counts have finished and the results are in.

Colleagues just over the border in Witney, Oxfordshire have been told the same thing.