General Election 2019: Havant stays Conservative as Alan Mak retains safe seat

Mr Mak has won the seat for the third time since 2015. He won with 65.39 per cent of the vote – an extra 5.63 on last election's result.

The MP, who now has a 21,792 majority, said: ‘I’m honoured that the residents of Havant have re-elected me.

‘We've built a strong relationship together over the last couple of years and I'm looking forward to working hard for them all year round and continuing the work I've been doing to get Brexit delivered, but to invest in our public services, our police, our armed forces, our schools and our hospitals.’

Rosamund Knight (Lab) took 8,259 votes. Paul Gray (Libe Dem) won 5,708, and John Colman (Green) had 1,597. Alan Black (Soc Dem) scored 344 votes.

FULL RESULTS: Full list of results for Portsmouth, Gosport, Havant, Fareham and Meon Valley

Mr Mak’s team say talk of Britain's withdrawal from the European Union - rather the lack of progress - has dominated the campaign.

Official figures tonight show turnout is 64.02% with 46,162 votes cast, of an electorate of 72,103. In 2017 there were 46,399 people who voted.

A total of 44,047 people in Havant voted to leave in the 2016 referendum. They, like many, will be upset their will remains undone.

Alex Rennie, Mr Mak's election agent, said: 'On the doorstep, the message I hear clearly is from people who are fed up with listening to Brexit on the TV and on the radio - they voted for it in the referendum and they now want it followed through and delivered in Parliament.'

On a local level, it is well-known Havant's standing as a parliamentary constituency is more of a dead cert than a swing.

But that, underpinned by Mr Mak's 2017 majority of 15,956, doesn't stop his contenders fighting for change.

Liberal Democrat candidate, Paul Gray, is the only candidate standing against Mr Mak who tried and failed to beat him in 2017.

After the resoundingly blue exit poll comes in he appears concerned. He said it's a look of 'huge disappointment'. But his party refuses to 'go anywhere'.

'This constituency will this evening elect a Conservative MP, there is very little if any doubt whatsoever. But it's important everywhere in this country liberal voices are heard,' he says.

'We will continue to be here for those people who want to listen to evidence, reason and logic and we will always be here to represent that viewpoint.'

'At the moment we are losing out to populism. It's very difficult to fight populism, but we won't go anywhere and we will continue to make a logical, evidence-based case.'

In 2017 it was the Labour party who got closest to Mr Mak. News of the exit poll leaves the party's Havant candidate, Rosamund Knight, 'disappointed'.

But with hours until tonight's conclusion she wears a smile after a campaign she says went down well on the doorstep.

The key? 'A personal touch'.

'I've been very open and honest with people, shared my background with them and why I'm running for Labour and why I want to represent the local community - and I think people were impressed,' she says.

'I had a few nos, but not as many as I was expecting'.

Havant returned its highest Conservative majority since 1997 in the last election - but voter turnout hasn't been as high since. It was 70.4 per cent that year.

But with chatter of voters flocking to the polls in their droves, with Havant apparently no exception, the town will know in the early hours if its political history is being rewritten - while staying exactly the same.