THE Conservative party has kept their seat in Newbury with Laura Farris being voted in as MP. 

Ms Farris won the seat with 34,431.

The Liberal Democrats came second, cutting the Tory majority compared to the 2017 general election. Their candidate Lee Dillon received 18,384 votes. 

Labour came third, with their candidate James Wilder receiving 4,404 votes. 

The Green party came fourth, with Steve Masters receiving 2,454 votes. 

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Independent candidate Ben Holden-Crowther came last of the five and received 325 votes. 

Ms Farris said: “Brexit has divided the nation and this constituency. The referendum should be respected. I’m glad the prime minister has a majority to do that. 

“I’m glad we can return to getting back to the issues that matter to people. I’m honoured to follow in the footsteps of Richard Benyon, a great, dedicated public servant."

She said she was also proud to ‘follow in the footsteps of her dad’. Her father, Michael McNair-Wilson, was also MP for Newbury, from 1974 to 1992. 

Mr Dillon said there was a trend in West Berkshire, of the Liberal Democrats making gains in local elections, European elections, and now in the general election. 

He said: “We have taken a sizeable 24,000 majority and made a real dent in that. We will continue to hold the Conservatives to account, and make sure they don’t deliver a no-deal Brexit.” 

This is the first time Ms Farris, a lawyer and former journalist, has won a seat in a general election. Previously she stood in 2017 for Leyton and Wanstead. 

Ms Farris replaces the Tory MP Richard Benyon, who was first elected in Newbury in 2005 but stepped down ahead of this election. 

She called the national campaign ‘bitter and rancorous’. She said the election results showed a ‘decisive rejection of Jeremy Corbyn and the cancer of anti-semitism’. 

But she praised her fellow candidates in Newbury. She said while they had exchanged ideas, they had not criticised her character.