More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Home Canterbury News Article
Labour's Rosie Duffield has retained her seat in Canterbury.
Ms Duffield has defeated Conservative candidate Anna Firth by 1,836 votes.
Summary
SCROLL DOWN FOR OUR LIVE BLOG
Live Reporting
By Joseph Wright, Lydia Chantler-Hicks and Joe Coshan
03.30
That's it for the Canterbury count... until next time! (whenever that may be).
03.10
Anna Firth congratulating Canterbury's MP following announcement.
Ms Duffield arrived just in time for the results were declared.
02.57
Jubilation from local Labour members as Ms Duffield is announced as the victor.
02.50
That must have been one of the worst exit polls ever predicted! An 88% chance of a Tory victory turned out, well... to be just a little bit wrong.
02.40
Anna Firth congratulated Ms Duffield on her victory
02.33
Anna Firth came second, taking 27,182 votes.
Lib Dem candidate Claire Malcomson, who was controversially drafted in by the party after Tim Walker stood aside, came a distant third with 3,408 votes.
Michael Gould, standing as an Independent, took the smallest share with 505.
Ms Duffiled, who said she represents the "best constituency in the world",
"I'm so grateful to be given the chance to be your MP again."
02.30
Rosie Duffield has extended her majority from 187 to 1,836.
02.22
Whispers of a Labour win are still circling here at Westgate Hall...
02.10
01.57
Anna Firth's advisers telling us she won't be speaking to media until "she knows what's going on".
Well, by that token, we could be waiting a while....
Still no sign of Rosie Duffield
01.36
Lib Dem candidate Claire Malcomson is unsure about her chances.
"I have no idea what my chances are," she said.
"What I want to get across is our voting system is not right. Everyone's trying to vote tactically - we need to change the system, that is my message.
"Voting tactically is not a way to be heard."
We wanted to ask more questions of Ms Malcolmson but the interview was cut short by her advisors. We were later offered the chance to re-interview her, but her advisors suggested she would only give a similar answer on the negatives of tactical voting.
01.26
Anna Firth has now arrived, but still no sign of Rosie Duffield.
01.18
Counting, counting and more counting...
01.05
Still no sign of Rosie Duffield or Anna Firth.
00.52
00.32
Turnout for the Canterbury constituency was a massive 76.19% - up from 72.77% in 2017.
00.27
And the next candidate to arrive is...
00.15
Conservative agent Robbie Lammas reacts to the exit poll's glowing prediction for the Tories...
00.01
Mr Gould has responded to those who have criticised him for standing in such a marginal seat.
He said: "People I know seem to be angry with me for standing because they say I could single-handedly have cost Labour the entire election.
"My only reason why I went into this campaign was because I thought the Labour Party had been extremely ill-advised to vote against the Theresa May deal, because I thought the likelihood was we would fall off the cliff and end up with something worse.
"And now it looks as if I've been proven right."
23.47
Independent candidate Michael Gould is the first of the four to arrive.
23.40
Cllr Thomas says the Conservatives have run a thorough and non-stop campaign in Canterbury and Whitstable.
23.15
The news of the predicted Tory win has put a dampener on Labour spirits... Rosie Duffield is yet to arrive here, but so too are the other three candidates.
22.58
Shock news as the exit poll suggests the Tories have an 88% chance of regaining the Canterbury and Whitstable seat.
This prediction completely contradicts previous forecasts for the constituency - with the most recent YouGov MRP poll suggesting Labour was on track for a win.
Before Rosie Duffield's shock 2017 victory, the seat was held by Tory stalwart Sir Julian Brazier for 30 years.
22.48
Labour, on the other hand, aren't jumping for joy.
22.43
A senior local Conservative reacted very cheerily to the exit poll, saying: "If it ends up like it's saying, it would be brilliant."
22.31
Some of the first ballot boxes arriving... Conservative chairman Simon Cook was quick to hurriedly begin spotting the results from Rough Common.
22.16
Counting has now begun but there is quiet calm across the hall.
Despite the predicted Conservative majority, it's all up for grabs as Rosie Duffield hopes to extend her time in office.
None of the candidates have arrived as of yet.
22.06
There were sighs of relief from Conservatives as they heard the news of the exit poll. They could be sitting pretty on 368 seats come the end of the night - a huge majority.
21.57
All of the counters have arrived and are in position ready to start counting as soon as the ballot boxes arrive.
21:40
Just 187 votes separated Rosie Duffield and veteran Tory MP Sir Julian Brazier in 2017, with the Labour hopeful decimating a near-10,000 majority and turning the seat red for the first time.
The Remain-backing MP is now up against Brexiteer Anna Firth, leading to suggestions the Canterbury race is a "mini EU referendum".
Constituents narrowly backed Remain in 2017 - could that prove pivotal when the votes are counted tonight?
21.30
With just half-an-hour until the polls close, we've arrived at the Westgate Hall, where votes for the Canterbury and Whitstable seat will be counted.
It's been neck-and-neck throughout the campaign, but Rosie Duffield has usurped Anna Firth as the slight favourite in recent days.
Exit polls at 10pm will no doubt shed more light on the local and national picture.
Follow our KentOnline live blog for the latest updates and results from across the county.
To see who was elected in Canterbury in 2017, click here.
