General Election 2024 recap: Penny Mordaunt loses Portsmouth North in Labour gain, Conservatives retain seats
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The great waterfront city has turned red with Portsmouth North and South both falling to Labour. Amanda Martin gained her seat, tearing up on stage, from the leader of the house of commons Penny Mordaunt. Stephen Morgan retained his Portsmouth South seat with a large majority.
A full recount was declared in Havant, with votes for Labour and the Tories too close to call. In the end, it was Alan Mak who won the seat by the skin of his teeth with less than 100 votes. Former home secretary Suella Braverman gained Fareham and Waterlooville following the boundary change, spending much of her speech deriding her own party.
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Hide AdDame Caroline Dinenage retained Gosport, as seat which she has held since 2010, with Paul Holmes holding onto the Hamble Valley seat. Damian Hinds was another Tory MP who held onto his seat, despite pressure from Liberal Democrat Dominic Martin. Chichester MP and education secretary, Gillian Keegan, lost her seat, with Liberal Democrat Jess Brown-Fuller becoming the new MP.
The exit poll predicted a historic landslide victory for Labour, and with 375 seats at the time of writing, it has been proven correct. You can follow the latest updates by scrolling to the bottom of this article.
General Election 2024 Live Blog - Portsmouth
Key Events
- Penny Mordaunt loses her Portsmouth North seat
- Close call for Alan Mak after recount is needed in his constituancy
- Suella Braverman apologises for her party's failings
Expected times of the results
Here are the expected declaration times for each seat covering Hampshire for those planning to stay up tonight!
Last YouGov poll before exit poll
YouGov have released the final net favourability ratings ahead of the exit poll at 10pm.
They show drops in approval for Rishi Sunak and Nigel Farage.
Campaign statistics
YouGov has also released data regarding who people think ran the best election campaign.
The Conservative Party ranked as the worst, with a large proportion of people saying no party ran a good campaign.
Betting odds
Oddschecker has released the latest betting odds for the constituencies in the Portsmouth area and Hampshire. They are as follows:
Portsmouth North: Labour – 8/15 (65.2 per cent probability)
Portsmouth South: Labour – 1/200 (99.5 per cent probability)
Fareham & Waterlooville: Conservatives – 2/5 (71.4 per cent probability)
Havant: Conservatives – 4/11 (73.3 per cent probability)
Gosport: Conservatives – 8/15 (65.2 per cent probability)
Chichester: Liberal Democrats – 1/2 (66.7 per cent probability)
East Hampshire: Conservatives – 1/6 (85.7 per cent probability)
Latest update ahead of the exit poll
Voters are awaiting the exit poll which will indicate who has won the General Election as the final ballots are cast following weeks of campaigning by party leaders.
Opinion polls suggest Labour is on course to secure a big majority in the House of Commons and form a new government.
The first indication of whether the pollsters were correct will come moments after the ballot closes at 10pm, when the exit poll is broadcast by the BBC, Sky and ITV.
Mr Sunak, who has insisted the results are not a foregone conclusion despite dire poll ratings for his party, voted in his Richmond constituency.
On X, the Prime Minister repeated his plea to voters to “stop the Labour supermajority”.
Sir Keir was also joined by his wife, Victoria, as he visited a polling station in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency.
The Labour leader told his final rally in Redditch, Worcestershire, on Wednesday night to “imagine a Britain moving forward together with a Labour government”.
Prominent Conservative MPs projected to lose seats
Several well-known Tory politicians are predicted to lose their seats, in what is known as a ‘Portillo” moment.
A “Portillo” moment is a reference to Conservative cabinet minister Michael Portillo who lost what had been regarded as a safe Tory seat in Labour’s 1997 landslide.
Voter intention surveys have suggested a Labour lead of around 20 points, while massive multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) studies, which forecast constituency level results, have consistently indicated a Labour landslide.
The list includes:
Jeremy Hunt - current chancellor
Grant Shapps - current defence secretary
Penny Mordaunt - House of Commons leader - Portsmouth MP
Alex Chalk - justice secretary
Mark Harper - transport secretary
Mel Stride - work and pensions secretary
Gillian Keegan - education secretary - Chichester MP
Last minute responses from politicians
Some of the most prominent political figures in Portsmouth have made last minute pledges on social media.
Fareham and Waterlooville
Cameras are set up in anticipation for the Fareham and Waterlooville result. The constituency, formed after a boundary change, is being contested by former home secretary Suella Braverman.
Other candidates include Gemma Furnivall (Labour), Kevan Chippindall-Higgin (Reform UK), Edward Dean (Rejoin EU), Bella Hewitt (Liberal Democrats), Robert John Holliday (Hampshire Independants) and Baz Marie (Green).
Portsmouth
Media and candidates has packed Portsmouth Guildhall as the polls are due to close.
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Exit poll
Labour is set to win a landslide majority, according to the exit poll.
The party is due to secure 410 seats. Conservatives are only expected to win 131 seats, Liberal Democrats 61, Reform UK 13, SNP 10, Plaid Cymru 4, Green 2 and 19 others.
Tory reaction to exit poll
Former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davison, called the projected election result a “massacre”.
She told Sky News: “So actually 131 – while, there is no dressing it up, this is a massacre – they’ve actually, if this is right, pulled a few back from where they thought they were.”
Latest pictures from count
Counting is continuing in Portsmouth, with postal votes being looked at.
Gosport
The ballot boxes have arrived in Gosport, with counting commencing.
Here is the latest from Havant, with the ballot boxes being brought.
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