Guildford General Election 2024 results in full as seat changes hands

Results have been announced in Guildford with Zöe Franklin decided as the new MP. This is a gain for the Liberal Democrats.

Zöe Franklin won the seat with 22,937 votes, coming ahead of Angela Richardson who took home 14,508. Dennis Saunders' Reform took third place with 4,395 votes. Voting turnout was down in Guildford to 68.6%, a decrease from 75.65% from 2019.

Mrs Franklin was announced as the winner at 5:49am on Friday (July 5) after a count at the Spectrum leisure centre in Guildford.

Conservatives saw their majority more than doubled from around 3,337 votes in 2019 to 8,429. Even if Conservatives absorbed the Reform UK vote, they would have still been lacking thousands of votes.

Read more: Map shows Surrey election results in full as some seats change hands

Read more: Surrey General Election results as Conservatives lose out and Jeremy Hunt's fate decided

A councillor for North Guildford from 2008- 2015, Zoe is now stepping up to represent her home. Only the second Liberal Democrat MP in Guildford since 1910, it certainly marks a change election. She replaces Mrs Richardson who has been Tory MP for the constituency since 2019. Also the former Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party, Mrs Richardson is one of the X number of Conservatives who have lost their seat.

Polls closed at 10pm on Thursday (July 4), before hours of verification and counting took place to eventually confirm Mrs Franklin’s victory to loud cheers from Lib Dem supporters.

She won 22,937 votes, with Conservative Mrs Richardson coming second with 14,508, Reform UK candidate came third with 4,395, Labour candidate Sarah Gillinson fourth with 3,931, Green Party’s Sam Peters with 2,268 and John Morris of The Peace Party with just 255.

Speaking to SurreyLive after her win, Mrs Franklin said it felt “amazing” to call herself Guildford MP and it was such an immense privilege and “incredibly humbling that the people of Guildford have chosen me”.

With a Labour landslide of at least 409 seats, and Liberal Democrats gaining 62 seats, Mrs Franklin is part of a new political landscape. “It’s clear across the UK that people have chosen change,” she said. “The people in Guildford have chosen change.”

In her acceptance speech, Mrs Franklin said “the work starts now” and outlined her priorities are holding water companies to account with local issues of sewage and water supply, work to get more GPs and NHS dentists, as well as scrapping the two-benefit cap.

Also speaking after the result, Conservative Angela Richardson said it was “disappointing but it was not unexpected”. She claimed “the die was cast long ago” and speculated issues of Partygate and Liz Truss’ disastrous mini budget. Mrs Richardson added it was a “difficult time for the Conservatives”.

Mrs Richardson reiterated her pride at how her party had performed and said her group has been working “flat out for seven days a week”. She said that outside the polling station people thanked her for the constituency work.

She said: “Guildford just needs to carry on.”

Guildford result in full:

• Liberal Democrat, Zoe Franklin: 22,937

• Labour, Sarah Gillinson: 3,931

• The Peace Party, John Morris: 255

• Green, Sam Peters: 2,268

• Conservatives, Angela Richardson: 14,508

• Reform UK, Dennis Saunders: 4,395

• Turnout: 68.6%

See below for the full results in Guildford in our interactive widget.

For more news about the general election in Surrey, visit our page here.