Matt Rodda held onto his seat emphatically in Reading East in a bad night nationally for Labour.

The Labour Party candidate won in Reading East with 27,102 votes ahead of Tory hopeful Craig Morley.

The Reading East result was announced at 3.46am.

Mr Rodda beat Tory hopeful Craig Morley by around 6,000 votes.

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He said: “I am really pleased to have won again and quite surprised and overwhelmed by the scale of the result and I am really grateful to local people for putting their trust in me.

“It’s an enormous privilege to be a local MP and I really respect people for voting for me and I will do my best to represent them.

“I will be working hard for them from tomorrow morning onwards.

“I will be working both on local issues and pressing national issues which includes Brexit, austerity and the need for urgent government action to tackle the climate emergency.”

Conservative candidate Mr Morley received 21,178 votes.

Liberal Democrats candidate Imogen Shepherd-DuBey finished third, receiving 5,035 votes.

David McElroy, of the Green Party, finished fourth with 1,549 votes.

Brexit Party candidate Mitchell Feierstein finished fifth with 852 votes, while Christian People’s Alliance candidate Yemi Awolola received 202 votes.

Mr Rodda was first elected in 2017, beating Conservative politician and previous Reading East MP Rob Wilson.

The former journalist is currently Shadow Minister for Local Transport.

Mr Rodda overcame the BBC’s prediction, which said it was too close to call and put Mr Morley as slight favourite.

The BBC’s forecast had suggested Labour had a 49per cent chance of retaining Reading East, with the Tories given a 51 per cent chance.

In the other Reading election Conservative candidate Alok Sharma kept his Reading West seat with 24,393 votes, beating Labour challenger Rachel Eden.

The Tories won a majority, while Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson lost her seat.