Summary

  1. Theresa May awarded peeragepublished at 00:32 British Summer Time 5 July

    Former prime minister Theresa May, who stood down as Maidenhead's MP before the general election, will sit in the House of Lords.

    The nominations were announced less than an hour before polls closed in the general election on Thursday.

    Sir Alok Sharma, who was the Conservative MP for Reading West from 2010 until he stood down earlier this year, is also given a peerage.

    He was the president of the climate COP26 conference in November 2021.

    In what could be one of his final acts as prime minister, Rishi Sunak has also given honours to five of his Conservative colleagues.

    Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister and close ally of Mr Sunak, will be knighted, as will the former Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith, the former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and the Scottish Secretary Alister Jack.

    Theresa May in a blue jacket and wearing sunglasses in a green chairImage source, Getty Images
    Image caption,

    Mrs May was pictured on Wednesday sitting in the Royal Box at Wimbledon

  2. Reporters await results and look around venuespublished at 00:01 British Summer Time 5 July

    BBC Berkshire's political reporter Patrick O’Hagan is at the Loddon Valley Leisure Centre where he’s covering the Wokingham and Earley and Woodley counts for us.

    Clearly we forget to tell him to take his gym gear with him.

    Patrick O'Hagan in a gym with gym equipment behind him
  3. Welcome to our election coveragepublished at 20:00

    Voting has been taking place throughout the day across the UK in the 2024 general election.

    Join us after midnight BST for coverage of all the results and reaction across Berkshire.

    BBC South will have reporters at the counts and you can follow all the election developments as they happen here on the BBC News website and app.