General Election 2024: Tories national trend "doesn't look very good at all" amid vote counting in Fareham

In Fareham and Waterlooville where Conservative Suella Braverman is hoping to be re-elected MP, former Tory council leader Sean Woodward said nationally, it “doesn’t look very good at all”. He said he had been in Sarisbury and Park Gate all day but arrived at the count at Fareham Leisure Centre and was faced with a grim exit poll for his party.

With the poll suggesting the Conservatives could be reduced to just 131 seats, he said: “It all looked very positive indeed, but then I arrive here and see an exit poll. Nationally, it doesn’t look very good at all.” While there is a national Labour landslide predicted, Suella Braverman is predicted to have a 94 per cent chance of holding onto her seat.

The count for two constituencies which have had boundary changes, Fareham and Waterlooville and Hamble Valley, have begun at Fareham Leisure Centre. The atmosphere is tense and several representatives from the Liberal Democrats are already in attendance as ballot boxes flood through the doors, with the party’s Fareham candidate saying it looks like an “exciting night for the whole country”.

Bella Hewitt added: “Our team are obviously very excited, we’ve worked so hard over the last I don’t know how many weeks and months to really get the Liberal Democrat message out there.”