General Election 2024: All the results and analysis from Cambridgeshire as political landscape is reshaped
It was a night of wholesale change.
General Election 2024 will go down as a seismic shift in the political landscape, nationally and locally.
With Labour romping to victory, and Sir Keir Starmer handed the keys to No 10 Downing Street, the Conservatives were left licking their wounds - only to find Nigel Farage and Reform UK pouring salt on them.
Meanwhile, Cambridgeshire - for a long time a Tory stronghold, at least outside of Cambridge - is now cast in shades of yellow, red and blue.
Here’s how it all happened, by constituency.
Cambridge
Labour’s Daniel Zeichner was elected to a fourth term of office, earning more than double
the votes of his nearest competitor, Liberal Democrat Cheney Payne. Green Party candidate Sarah Nicmanis ensured the Tories were fourth in the city.
The result was no surprise, but it is a very different victory for Mr Zeichner than his previous wins in 2015, 2017 and 2019, for this time he is heading into government with Labour.
“My entire time in Parliament has been in opposition,” he said, following the count at the University Sport Centre. “This is a real thrill - the prospect of having a government that I can support and hopefully be a part of.
“I very much hope the chaos and instability that everyone has suffered from over the last few years is replaced by a period of calm and stability, because I think that would be the thing that would really help people get back on track.
“I have been really struck by just how hard the cost of living crisis has hit so many people. The country can be much better than this and I genuinely think Keir Starmer can lead a much better government.”
Read more from Daniel Zeichner here.
South Cambridgeshire
The Lib Dems knew their prospects were strong outside of the city and threw everything at securing seats here. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey even chose to launch his party’s campaign in South Cambridgeshire, bringing the battlebus to Whittlesford in support of one of his new stars - Pippa Heylings.
And it could hardly have gone much better for them across the county.
Ms Heylings has already tasted victory over the Tories as a councillor. The Lib Dems ousted the Conservatives from office at South Cambridgeshire District Council.
And the swing from blue to yellow continued in the General Election as she swept aside the challenge from Chris Carter-Chapman, winning 25,704 votes to his 15,063.
It was a sizeable victory, given that South Cambridgeshire has only ever been Conservative until now.
“This is an historic result for South Cambridgeshire,” she told the Cambridge Independent, after the result was announced at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford in the early hours of Friday.
“It’s just incredible the trust and the faith that South Cambridgeshire people have put in me, and I really want to show them that I’m going to work for them. I’ve listened to them. I’ve heard what they are saying.
“Now on Tuesday, we’ll be in Westminster, and I’ll be championing the NHS, fighting the cost of living crisis, ending the sewage scandal and making sure we tackle the climate change crisis.”
While Labour were never in the fight for the constituency, and focused more of their campaigning efforts in Peterborough, Luke Viner secured third, with Reform UK’s Harrison Edwards in fourth with 4,897. Those votes will certainly have hurt Tory candidate Chris Carter-Chapman, but the truth is that even if every one of them had gone his way, he would still have fallen short of Ms Heylings’ overwhelming total.
The revised boundary in South Cambridgeshire - with Cherry Hinton and Queen Edith’s in Cambridge moved in, and areas including Cambourne and St Neots moved out - certainly didn’t seem to hurt the Lib Dems.
Read more from Pippa Heylings here.
St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire
The Lib Dems triumphed as well in the new constituency of St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire.
Dr Ian Sollom overcame Conservative Anthony Browne in a tighter battle that Reform UK appears to have had a more significant say in.
Mr Browne had switched to the new constituency from South Cambridgeshire, to which he was elected in 2019, narrowly beating Dr Sollom that time.
But here, he could only muster 14,896 votes and reflected on what might have been had Guy Lachlan secured 5,673 for Reform UK. Had he won all those votes, Mr Browne would have beaten Dr Sollom’s total of 19,517.
The victorious MP told the Cambridge Independent: “We laid the groundwork in 2019 and in the run up to 2019 for both the South Cambridgeshire victory tonight and for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire. It’s been a long road, but it’s fantastic to be on this side of the winning line,” he said.
“It will be a new era in Parliament. I think the Lib Dems have an important role in that the Conservatives will be in disarray.
“There will be a lot of soul searching in the Conservative Party. The Lib Dems must go in and be the strong opposition as the third party.”
Mr Browne, meanwhile, began the Tory party soul-searching.
“Reform made the difference between me winning and losing,” he said. “One of the lessons - and there are lots of lessons - is we need to learn to put personal agendas behind and work for the common good and stop the infighting.”
Read more from Dr Sollom and Mr Browne here.
Ely and East Cambridgeshire
It was going to take something seismic for Conservative Lucy Frazer to be unseated. Having been first elected in 2015 for the Conservatives, and risen to the position of culture secretary in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet, Ms Frazer was fighting for a fourth consecutive term.
But the shockwaves could be felt as soon as the polls closed in this revised constituency, which effectively replaced South East Cambridgeshire under Boundary Commission changes. Exit poll analysis suggested Ms Frazer had a 49 per cent chance of winning, compared to Liberal Democrat Charlotte Cane’s 51 per cent chance.
That proved to be an insightful forecast, as Ms Cane - who has been the deputy group leader of the Lib Dem opposition on East Cambridgeshire District Council - unseated her opponent by just 495 votes.
And it was clearly Reform UK’s influence here that made the difference, with the party’s Ryan Coogan scooping up 6,443 votes - a fraction of which would have been enough for Ms Frazer to earn re-election.
Ms Frazer said afterwards: “I think the Conservative Party is going to have to reflect on its future going forward and I think there will be a battle for the soul of the Conservative Party. I think there was definitely an impact from the Reform vote.”
Ms Cane said of her win: “I'm really excited about it because people have been telling me how concerned they are that they can't get hospital appointments, they can't get a dentist, that rivers have got sewage in them…
“And people have told me some terrible stories about how they're not coping with the cost of living crisis. So I think it's really exciting that I've now got the opportunity to go to Westminster and push for those things to be sorted so that people in East Cambridgeshire can have a better life in five years’ time and I will really work hard for that.”
Read more from Charlotte Cane here and more from Lucy Frazer here.
Huntingdon
There was much better news for the Tories in Huntingdon, a safe seat once served by former Prime Minister Sir John Major, and since 2001 by Jonathan Djanogly, who did not seek re-election this time around.
Instead Ben Obese-Jecty stood for the Conservatives, and he held off a surge from the Labour candidate, Alex Bulat, a county councillor representing the Abbey division in Cambridge.
Mr Obese-Jecty won 18,257 votes - losing 24.1 per cent of the vote share from 2019 as Reform UK’s Sarah Smith earned the support of 8,039 electors. Ms Bulat secured 16,758, an 11.4 per cent improvement in the vote share from the last General Election for Labour.
She said: “It was not to be this time in Huntingdon. But as I learnt throughout my life, things that are worth doing are a tough fight - this was my first General Election and just the beginning.
“Most of all, I am happy to wake up to a Labour government who I know will improve the lives of people like me and many others across the country.
“When I was selected as a candidate for Huntingdon in March, many people told me it's an ‘impossible’ task to even come close. After all, it was John Major's seat, one that has never been Labour.
“Reducing the Conservative majority in Huntingdon from 19,383 in 2019 to 1,499 today, significantly above the national swing for Labour, is a result I am proud of.
“It is humbling to think that 16,758 people in Huntingdon constituency chose to put their X next to my name and I am grateful for every single conversation in this campaign - I learnt so much.
“Most of all, I am proud we have led a positive campaign and stuck to the principles of debate, not hate.”
Former Army officer Mr Obese-Jecty, who spent nine years in the infantry after Sandhurst, said: “I am honoured to have been elected as the new Conservative MP for Huntingdon.
“This was a hard fought campaign and to win against the odds on such a bleak night for the party nationally is testament to the incredible work of everybody in this picture and many others over the past nine months.
“I stood on a platform of focusing on issues that are important to local people and being a visible and accessible MP. I am hugely thankful to all those who voted for me in this election.
“I will be working hard for everybody in the constituency, not only to represent them in Westminster and deliver on my local plan, but also to earn back the trust in the Conservative Party.
“Thank you too to all the candidates. It takes more courage than many realise to put yourself forward for public office.”
North West Cambridgeshire
Labour’s Sam Carling - a Cambridge city councillor - was responsible for one of the big shocks of the night when he won North West Cambridgeshire from veteran Conservative Shailesh Vara by just 39 votes.
One of the youngest candidates at age 22, Mr Carling would have been a toddler when Mr Vara was first elected in 2005 and became Britain’s first MP born in the 21st century.
The Conservative witnessed his vote share plummet by 26.8 per cent from the 2019 General Election, as Reform UK’s James Sidlow picked up 8,741 votes.
Labour earned a third of the votes, up 9.5 per cent on last time out.
Mr Carling, a postgraduate biomedical researcher and former president of Christ’s College JCR, has been serving West Chesterton ward on Cambridge City Council, and as executive councillor for open spaces and city services.
In his victory speech, he said: “Never before has North West Cambridgeshire returned a Labour MP, but in this election, residents from across our area have heard Labour’s message of change and agreed with it, including many people who haven’t gone to vote before.
“Labour has won this election and therefore I’m hugely looking forward to getting to work on restoring Britain’s public services and reclaiming our country’s future.
“There is a lot to be optimistic about tonight and I will do everything I can to deliver the change our country has voted for
“Keir Starmer’s transformation of the Labour party has been remarkable. He has put country before party and has transformed Labour from a party focused on itself to one back in the service of the British public.
“We have campaigned as a changed Labour party and we’re ready to change Britain. We will get to work immediately with our first steps for change.”
He paid tribute to the other candidates for running fair and clean campaigns and thanked the outgoing Tory MP for his service to the constituency over the past 19 years.
He said: “I’d like to thank my activists and volunteers for all of their work and of course, I want to thank every single resident that came out to vote for me. Your trust means so much to me and I promise that I will work as hard as I can to repay that.”
In his speech Mr Vara thanked the people of North West Cambridgeshire for electing him for nearly 20 years and said: “The central feature of a democracy is that the pendulum of power swings at regular intervals and it has certainly swung today in a huge way.
“I congratulate Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour government for this massive victory that will go down in history. I wish them well as they govern Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
“Any party that is in government has difficulties and it is not easy to govern this great country of ours with all the issues and problems that there are and that will arise.
“I genuinely wish Sir Keir, as the new prime minister, well, as he seeks to do good for the citizens of the United Kingdom.
“The Conservative Party will, of course, have to reflect very carefully as to why it has faced this defeat in this manner. That is a debate and discussion for another day but I will say this; when that discussion takes place, I hope that those involved reflect very carefully as to whether the Conservative Party should fight amongst itself and therefore be in opposition.
“If they continue to fight among themselves, the opposition benches will welcome them for a very long time.
"Does the Conservative Party instead unite and in so doing takes the fight to the opposition?
“If that is the case, the Conservative Party will be back in business and with a chance of being in government again.
“I would urge my Conservative colleagues to think well and hard as to where they wish to be in the years to come. In resolving the issue of whether they fight among themselves or fight the opposition, they will find the answer to whether they want the comfort of the opposition benches or the responsibility to serve the nation on the government benches.”
North East Cambridgeshire
Conservative Steve Barclay - the former Brexit secretary - held off the rise of Reform UK to win comfortably in North East Cambridgeshire.
Securing 16,246 votes (41.5 per cent), his share was down 32.4 per cent on 2019, but was well ahead of Reform UK candidate Chris Thornhill, who secured 9,057 (23.1 per cent).
Labour’s Javeria Hussain came third, with 8,008 votes (20.4 per cent).
In his acceptance speech Mr Barclay said he was “hugely honoured” to be serving the area he “loves” for a fifth term and to continue the work of the past 14 years.
Commenting on his reduced majority, he said was happy to have achieved a good result given the unfolding national picture.
Peterborough
Labour pushed hard during the campaign in Peterborough - and their efforts were rewarded when Andrew Pakes won the seat from the Tories with 13,418 votes (32 per cent), although the party’s vote share was down some 9.5 per cent on 2019.
Mr Pakes beat Conservative Paul Bristow by just 118 votes. Mr Bristow saw his vote share plummet 14.7 per cent as he secured 13,300 votes (31.8 per cent) as Reform UK’s Sue Morris earned 5,379 votes (12.8 per cent) that clearly cost the Tory his seat.
Afterwards, Mr Pakes said: “It is a privilege of a lifetime to represent this beautiful city of ours. We have better days ahead - but it will require us all to work together.
“Thank you to everyone who voted. I will do my best to serve. Let the work begin.”
After the result was announced, Mr Bristow said: “"To represent Peterborough has been the privilege of my life. Peterborough is a fantastic city, and Andrew, I hope, does a fantastic job. And I hope Andrew enjoys this job, it is genuinely a fantastic city.
“I am sorry that I didn’t quite get us there - the result was very very close, but I want to say how sorry I am that we didn't quite get there and I didn't quite deliver for all of you.”
He said he hoped it was not the end for him in Peterborough politics.
The overall picture
The Conservatives picked up the most votes in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. But they only secured two MPs, compared to three for Labour and three for Liberal Democrats as this graphic from our political commentator Phil Rodgers shows.
And in neighbouring counties…
Now see our live blog to read how it all unfolded overnight.
And don’t miss the Cambridge Independent, out from Wednesday, for further insight and analysis.
