The Conservative candidate Caroline Ansell has won the Eastbourne parliamentary seat.
It follows what many have described as “the most important election of this generation” in which the Conservatives took home an overwhelming majority.
The result was revealed at 3am on Friday morning in Eastbourne Town Hall.
Caroline Ansell told the crowd: “I’ve been through all Dantés circles of hell.”
Ansell then spoke exclusively to Overtime. “I couldn’t be more pleased that I will represent my hometown once again.
“I think that primary task is to break that paralysis that so characterised the last parliament and move the country forward.”
Ansell takes the seat from Stephen Lloyd, having lost the seat to him in 2017.
This result matched a number of Conservative take overs in mostly Liberal or Labour strongholds, including North Wales’ Wrexham, which had been led by Labour since 1935, and Blyth Valley, a mining town in North East England that had also been a Labour hotspot.
The night started with the exit polls telling us that the Conservatives had a huge majority lead.
The end results saw the Tories take home an overwhelming majority.
Stephen Lloyd told the crowd: “It’s been a real privilege to be Eastbourne’s MP, something I will hold with me for the rest of my life.”
Furthermore, Labour’s Jake Lambert said: “We have run a campaign of which I am very proud.”
The Brexit Party candidate Stephen Gander seemed hopeful when he approached the stand. “We are Great Britain and we can be so much greater.”
Stephen Lloyd also used his speech to call out the Conservatives, telling Overtime that the Conservatives are “now an English nationalist party”.
He said: “I fear that it will be impossible to actually stop the inexorable drive towards Scottish independence and that saddens me, but I guess that’s a consequence of where we are.”
Read Overtime’s coverage of the election night in full.
