New Surrey MPs prepare for first week in role

There are nine new faces from Surrey at Parliament after the general election

Newly-elected MPs across the country are heading in to Westminster for their first day in a new role.

Thursday's general election saw 335 Members of Parliament elected for the first time and the House of Commons will sit again on Tuesday.

In Surrey, nine of the 12 elected were new faces, as the Conservatives lost seats across the county, mirroring the national picture.

Three Conservatives, including former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, were re-elected.

Mr Hunt had represented South West Surrey from 2010 to 2024, but now represents Godalming and Ash after constituency boundaries changed.

Alongside him, Runnymede and Weybridge MP Ben Spencer and East Surrey's Claire Coutinho were re-elected.

Six new Liberal Democrats won seats in the county, in Dorking and Horley, Epsom and Ewell, Esher and Walton, Guildford, Surrey Heath and Woking.

They include Monica Harding, the first woman to be elected in Esher and Walton, previously represented by Dominic Raab.

She told BBC Radio Surrey it was a "tremendous honour" to be the first non-Conservative elected in the seat in more than 150 years.

Mrs Harding added: "I'm going to get on the train, go into Parliament, set up my email, get my parliamentary pass and then start to assemble my team.

"I can't wait to get stuck in, there's so much to do."

Three new Conservative MPs were elected in Surrey.

They were Greg Stafford in the Farnham and Bordon constituency, straddling Surrey and Hampshire, Rebecca Paul in Reigate, and Lincoln Jopp in Spelthorne.

After winning the seat, Mr Stafford said as a senior leader in the NHS, he would "knock on the right doors" both nationally and locally to "knock some heads together" on the delivery of local projects.

He praised the charities and community groups in the constituency, adding: "I really want to see, as a Member of Parliament, everything that I can do to help them and support them and help them flourish."

But he said it would be "cheeky" of him as a new MP to urge Jeremy Hunt to consider running for leadership of the Conservative party.