Conservatives lose David Cameron's ex-seat as Lib Dems win in Witney

The Conservatives have lost former Prime Minister David Cameron's seat to the Liberal Democrats.

Sitting MP Robert Courts lost his seat to Charlie Maynard who was elected with 20,832 votes, beating Mr Courts' 16,493 votes.

Richard Langridge, the Reform UK candidate was third with 6,307 votes. Antonio Weiss for Labour got 4,773 votes.

Candidates await the results at Windrush Leisure Centre (Image: Miranda Norris)

In his acceptance speech, an emotional Mr Maynard said: "We’ve done it and it’s been a long, long march to this point and to put that in perspective the last time this town didn’t vote Conservative was in 1922, 102 years ago, and we have really made history here tonight and I’m incredibly grateful to everybody who helped do that.

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"What’s driven this is that this constituency desperately wants a fairer deal for everybody that lives inside it.

"That’s everybody who inside this constituency and beyond it, in the country and internationally and I will do everything I can to make that happen."

He said: "We want our public services better funded. There’s a lot more work to be done in health, education and police and much else around this constituency.

"We want to get our economy growing again and we need fairer tax and we need a dynamic local economy."

Mr Maynard, a former chair of the Witney Oxford Transport Group, which campaigned for a rail link between Oxford and Witney, added: "And some of you might have thought it was an elaborate ploy to build a railway line and just an election gimmick and it’s not.

"We need a better transport solution in West Oxfordshire and we need to fix our transport and our housing and that’s something I will work with many colleagues here to keep going as hard as we can at.

Charlie Maynard makes his acceptance speech with fellow candidates (Image: Miranda Norris)

"We need faster action on climate and we need to do these things fast and we need a fairer voting system."

He added: "I am standing here because many, many people who are not natural Lib Dems have leant me their vote and I am incredibly grateful for that and I will not forget it. Not just me but the Liberal Democrats so thank you very much.

"But we should not be in a situation where we are having to lend votes like that. We need a situation where all of our votes fairly reflect our wishes and we need to work towards that."

Mr Maynard thanked Robert Courts who has "worked very, very hard for the last eight years and it's obviously a very difficult job where you get sledged a lot", he said, and asked the audience to join him in a round of applause.

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He thanked the tellers who had worked from 6am to 6am "that is what the democratic process hinges on, your hard work".

Becoming emotional, Mr Maynard finally thanked his family.

He told the Oxford Mail: "I am completely delighted to be elected and grateful. This is a big thing, this hasn't happened in a hundred years in Witney.

"We have a chance to do something - and there's so much that needs to be done."