Clive Jones, the Lib Dems' candidate for Wokingham, said he was "very pleased" when the exit poll published at 22:00 showed that he is expected to take the seat from the Conservatives.

"We have run an extremely good campaign, a positive campaign. We've been working very hard for nearly two and a half years since I was selected as the candidate,” he said.

Mr Jones was previously the leader of Wokingham Borough Council.

He added: "We've spoken to loads and loads of residents and knocked on loads and loads of doors and I've personally spoken to over 10,000 Wokingham residents. I was quite shocked when I was told that two or three weeks ago.

"I would say I've been quite excited for some time thinking that we were doing the right things. We were knocking on lots of doors, we were talking to people about issues that were really concerning them: the state of the NHS, sewage in our rivers, the cost of living crisis."

Patrick O'Hagan
Political reporter, Berkshire

No-one wants to say for sure but in the last few minutes I've had conversations with several Liberal Democrat councillors here in Wokingham who say they're convinced they're going to take the parliamentary seat from the Conservatives.

Not only that, they also think that by the time this count is over people -including them- will be surprised by just how wide the margin of victory will be. Their candidate Clive Jones is due to arrive here shortly.

John Redwood was the Conservative MP for Wokingham from 1987 until earlier this year.

Our reporter at the Bracknell count, Ed Farrar, says that it has been announced that turnout was 61.4% on Thursday.

That's down from 68.6% at the last general election five years ago.

Tory MP James Sunderland is looking to keep the seat he's held since 2019.

Patrick O'Hagan
Political reporter, Berkshire

Labour agents and campaigners who we've spoken to at the Wokingham and Earley and Woodley counts say they have been told not to do any interviews with the media until their counts have finished and the results are in.

Colleagues just over the border in Witney, Oxfordshire have been told the same thing.

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.

Image source, Getty Images

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.

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.