Daisie-Belle Downer

Image source, Daisie-Belle Downer

At the South West Hertfordshire count in Rickmansworth, Liberal Democrat candidate Sally Symington said: "If there’s a Labour landslide for the country and I’ve seen the exit polls and I appreciate that’s what’s being predicted, I don’t know if that’s going to be the case here in South West Hertfordshire.

"Across the country, we are predicted to have 61 Liberal Democrat MPs, who will bring a wealth of experience to [Parliament] and be able to hold what we presume will be a Labour administration to account."

In Hemel Hempstead, five candidates are fighting for the seat that Conservative, Sir Mike Penning retired from.

Liberal Democrat candidate Sammy Barry-Mears said she was now "feeling tired" but was proud of all she has achieved and was also "proud to be a woman standing".

If the exit polls are correct, and Labour win the predicted landslide, "it's very obvious the county needs a change and that's what they're getting", she added.

Image source, Matt Mesiano/BBC

Sam Read
BBC Look East

The Liberal Democrat candidate in Milton Keynes North has said it’s been "a difficult process" to have to campaign in seats other than her own.

Clare Tevlin said the party had put its "investment" in target seats and so candidates in other seats had been asked to help out elsewhere.

Image source, Matt Souster/BBC

I asked her if it was frustrating to be asked to campaign elsewhere and she said: "It is frustrating but it is for the greater good."

She said she was proud of her campaign.

Daisie-Belle Downer

Tensions are always high as each party waits for the results to come in.

Here in Rickmansworth for the result in the South West Hertfordshire constituency, Gagan Mohindra, from the Conservative Party, was spotted looking disappointed, when the exit polls were announced, predicting a Labour landslide.

He is hoping to be re-elected as the local MP.

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

Labour's predicted 170-seat majority - described as a landslide - has been welcomed by Alexa Collins, chair of Bucks Labour Forum.

"What that large majority will mean is that we can probably get legislation through and get things done more quickly," she said.

Ms Collins added there had been an "absolute death of government for almost a decade" as the Tories grappled with delivering Brexit since 2016.

Amy Holmes
Political reporter, BBC Three Counties

Last October Alistair Strathern overturned a majority of almost 25,000 to become Mid Bedfordshire’s first ever Labour MP, when Conservative Nadine Dorries resigned after missing out on a peerage.

Mr Strathern will not be standing again here as boundary changes mean he now lives in the Hitchin constituency, so he will be fighting that one instead against incumbent Tory MP Bim Afolami.

Suggestions are that this seat may be a close one, probably between Labour and the Conservatives.

The result is expected soon.

Image source, Nick London/BBC

Barnie Choudhury

Toqueer Shah, an independent running in the Luton North constituency, told the BBC why he wanted to be an MP even though he had just had an operation to remove cancer in his throat.

He said that last year he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and the operation showed that it had spread to his vocal chords.

Image source, Barnie Choudhury/BBC

Mr Shah said he wanted to run after seeing "hospitals being destroyed" in the Israel-Gaza war.

"I will stand up for justice, and I will speak up for the voiceless, and a voice for peace and reconciliation", he said.

"The chances [of winning] might be slim. Luton is in the top 10 in the UK, collectively we’ve had 27 years of Tory and Labour governments and they’ve done nothing for child poverty."

Amy Holmes
Political reporter, BBC Three Counties Radio

The first result is in for Beds, Herts and Bucks and it's a Conservative hold, but with a new MP in the seat.

Lewis Cocking, leader of Broxbourne Council, beat Labour's Catherine Deakin to retain the seat for his party, getting 15,810 votes.

Ms Deakin secured 12,952 votes, Tom Holdsworth for Reform came third with 8,782 votes.

The Lib Dem candidate Nick Belfitt received 2,688, with the Green's Owen Brett picking up 2,461.

UKIP and the ECP also fielded candidates who received 172 and 87 votes respectively.

Broxbourne has been one of the safer Tory seats since being set up in 1983, and exit poll rumours that they might lose it have proved false.

Sir Charles Walker had been the Conservative MP for Broxbourne for 19 years with a majority of 19,807, but had stood down in advance of this election. The Tory majority has dipped to 2,858 though.

Holly Nichols

Liberal Democrat candidate for Hitchin, Chris Lucas, at the Hitchin count, told the BBC that the outlook for the Lib Dems "remains to be seen".

He described Sir Ed Davey's stunts as a mechanism to be able to discuss the key important issues of the country and the Liberal Democrats’ solution to those key issues.

Image source, Holly Nichols/BBC

He believes that “in short” the stunts have worked but that there is a "serious side to it".

He described the country as being in a "complete mess" and that it takes "clear, new, innovative thinking to provide solutions to those problems and the Liberal Democrat programme has provided those solutions".

The turnout has been revealed for Milton Keynes Central as 59.12% (47,930).

For the new seat of Buckingham and Bletchley the turnout was 63.94% (47,847)

Milton Keynes North had a turnout of 65.28% (46,161)

Across Milton Keynes the turnout was more than 65% in 2019, with Buckingham having a turnout of over 75% that year.

Mariam Issimdar
BBC News

Counting of ballots has begun in the seat of Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, with Labour and the Conservatives checking the verification process.

The former incumbent, Conservative Steven Baker - the Northern Ireland minister from 2022 - told the BBC earlier this evening that he had a "slim chance" of retaining the seat, which he has represented since 2010.

In 2019, he won the seat with a 4,000-plus majority.

The Luton voter turnout figures have been announced.

It is 51.99% in Luton North and slightly lower, at 49.87% in Luton South and South Bedfordshire.

The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, and the returning officer, Annie Brewster, has announced that the turnout for Welwyn Hatfield was 64.6%.

Liberal Democrat Milton Keynes City councillor Jane Carr has suggested Labour will win the Milton Keynes North seat tonight and also the redrawn Milton Keynes Central seat.

When it comes to Buckingham and Bletchley, the new seat in Buckinghamshire, she feels it will be a "tighter" contest.

Results are expected in those seats between 03:00 and 04:00.

Formed in 1983, the Hertsmere seat has always been a Conservative one, although the party lost overall control of the Borough Council in May’s local elections.

Oliver Dowden was first elected in 2015 and has a majority of 21,313. Dowden has had a fairly swift rise up the Party ranks to Deputy Prime Minister, via Culture Secretary and Party Co-chair among other high profile roles.

Although the local council now has a Labour leader in the form of Jeremy Newmark, nationally the party don’t regard this as a battleground seat currently.

In the history of the constituency the Liberal Democrat vote share has fallen substantially, from a quarter of the vote and second place ahead of Labour in 1983, to less than half that and third place in 2019. In 2015 the party fell to fourth place.

This is a seat with a new name but no real changes to its boundaries, other than losing Eaton Bray to the renamed Luton South and South Bedfordshire constituency.

Under its previous incarnation of South West Bedfordshire, it has been a strong Tory seat, since long-serving Andrew Selous won it by just 776 votes in 2001.

Our reporter at the count this evening, Nick London, says Mr Selous is "looking very concerned" as he waits to find out whether he holds onto this redrawn constituency.

Former MEP Alex Mayer is bidding to become the first Labour MP here since 1966, while Emma Holland-Lindsay stands again for the Lib Dems after increasing the party's vote share in October's Mid Bedfordshire by-election.

The Marshall Arena is used to holding grand music and sports events.

Today it hosts the counting of three constituencies in the Milton Keynes area.

The postal votes have arrived and counting has begun, with the efforts of over 250 people underway.

The hope is here that a declaration will be given at about 03:00.

Image source, Matt Souster/BBC

The NHS, SEND services and a possible Luton airport expansion were some of the key issues debated among candidates standing in the newly created Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency.

You can read a list of the seven takeaways here or you can watch the debate in full here.

Amy Holmes
Political reporter, BBC Three Counties

In 2021, the Liberal Democrats won the Chesham and Amersham by-election, following the passing of Conservative Dame Cheryl Gillan. In the last General Election in 2019, Dame Cheryl held onto the seat with a majority of 16,223.

Here's what happened in 2019 in the other seats in the county.

Aylesbury: Rob Butler (CON HOLD by 17,373 votes)

Beaconsfield: Joy Morrissey (CON HOLD by 15,712)

Buckingham: Greg Smith (CON HOLD by 20,411) - in 2024 seat has been redrawn and is now called Mid Bucks.

Milton Keynes South: Iain Stewart (CON HOLD by 6,944) - in 2024 seat has been abolished*

Milton Keynes North: Ben Everitt (CON HOLD by 6,255)

Wycombe: Steve Baker (CON HOLD by 4,214)

Buckingham and Bletchley is a new seat, created following recent boundary changes.

*There is also a seat called Milton Keynes Central that covers parts of the former Milton Keynes South and bits of Milton Keynes North.