Live from the count: General Election 2024
If you want to find out who Northamptonshire's new MPs are, follow our blog throughout the night
Updates
7.45am
That’s it - all results in. Six new MPs for Northants. Five Labour and two Conservatives elected. Mirroring the national picture it’s been a great night for Labour in Northants
7.30am
Results in for Daventry and South Northants constituencies and some consolation for the Tories as they retain both seats. Two new MPs though as Sarah Bool and Stuart Andrew are elected.
6.40am. Rosie Wrighting wins Kettering. Philip Hollobone loses after 19 years. Results still to come for Daventry and South Northants.
6.25am
Two more wins for Labour as Gen Kitchen keeps Wellingborough and Rushden and Lucy Rigby wins Northampton South.
6am
Labour win Corby and East Northants and Northampton South. Lee Barron is Cor y new amp and Mike Reader is Northampton South.
5am
Candidates in Northampton North are being asked to check spoiled ballots so this may be the first result of the night in Northants.
The Liberal Democrat vote in Daventry and South Northamptonshire has "suffered" due to tactical voting websites, according to the party's Jonathan Harris.
Mr Harris, who is standing in the Daventry ward, said an "anti-Tory" focus has led many voters to believe Labour is the only option to remove the Conservatives from power.
He told NN Journal: "My frustration is that it is better to vote for what you want rather than what you don't. My worry is that it can lead to disappointment. If you get the majority Labour are likely to, then you will get a short honeymoon period.
"They haven't got long to turn things around."
Mr Harris even went as far as saying polling should not take place during a general election period, suggesting if Labour fail there may be a resultant lurch to the right in future elections.
But he added he was "thrilled" by the Liberal Democrats performance nationally and praised a campaign which has seen leader Ed Davey engage in a series of high-profile stunts, including paddle boarding and bungee jumping.
"I think he's done a fantastic job," Mr Harris said. "We were a little nervous in the very early stages, but I have seen a poll which showed our campaign has had the biggest impact of anyone's."
Mr Harris saved special praise for an election video Mr Davey made with his disabled son, which highlighted the work of carers: "It was very emotional and really landed with people."
4am
Counting happening in Kettering for all three constituencies. Tom Pursglove has turned up but does not want to talk. Nor does Philip Hollobone.
Only happy Conservative spotted so far is Dan Bennett who is standing in Northampton North. Former aide to Michael Ellis. Labour’s Lucy Rigby is expected to win.
Helen Harrison, an Oundle Conservative councillor who stood in the Wellingborough byelection and stood in East Thanet (Kent) has lost tonight.
Results expected in the next hour or so from the Kettering count.
It’s official Labour have won the election - no results from Northants as yet.
03.10am
Conservative cabinet member on North Northamptonshire Council David Brackenbury says that tonight is an all time low for his party and it looks like it will be a ‘disastrous night’. Says his party will need to stock and not move to hastily. Thinks that Reform UK will not just be an issue for his party but for Labour.
The Green Party candidate for South Northamptonshire has told NN Journal she would like to see the constituencies' next MP address the "march of massive warehouses" across the region.
Emmie Williamson said people's lives have been "blighted" by warehouse building, adding: "This is trashing the countryside, bringing a type of growth and jobs which people really don't want.
"They seem to be powerless to change [anything]. The planning process has failed South Northamptonshire, and I want someone who can genuinely stand up to big development and get the government to help in that regard.
"The previous MP [Andrea Leadsom] didn't manage to stop all this development - whoever is elected needs to be much more present and campaigning."
Ms Williamson said she is hoping the Green Party will be able to get their deposit back [which requires five per cent of the vote], something the party hasn't managed previously in the county.
"On an even more optimistic level, it's looking like we could get seven or eight per cent," she said.
"For the smaller parties, the Conservative collapse is a good thing. We are really hoping one day for proportional representation. It would just lead to a more healthy democracy.
"In rural areas like South Northants, Conservative voters are disillusioned. A lot of them are going over to the Greens."
She added she believed an increase in general election vote share would help her party win seats in local elections, including on West Northamptonshire Council, in the future.
"It's really exciting because there is a Green surge going on," she said.
2.44am
From Craig Lewis: I've been talking to the Green Party candidate for Daventry, Clare Slater, who told me she wants to see the area's next MP "fighting for the constituency" and bringing "real engagement with the local population".
She said her campaign had been going really well: "It's buzzing, always a thrill to see a cross next to your name.
"An increase in our vote share, which it looks like we might do, would be good. We've talked to so many voters who are inspired by what the Greens have to offer, but because of the first-past-the-post system that doesn't necessarily translate into votes."
She added that the predicted Labour landslide nationally would represent a "really exciting" change: "We need a change, we're absolutely crying out for change. But what we need is long-term change.
"The problems we are facing require long-term solutions. We need to be looking in generational terms, rather than a Parliamentary term.
"Labour need to be bolder, and hopefully a higher national vote share for the Greens will push them to be bolder. Climate change isn't going away, we can't keep our heads in the sand."
With Labour set for a landslide victory nationally, and even leading Conservatives like Jacob Rees-Mogg calling it a "terrible night" for his party, Reform UK candidate for Daventry, Scott Cameron, told NN Journal that a shattering of the two-party system would be good for the country.
Mr Cameron, who is standing as an election candidate for the first time, said: "The more MPs we get, the more it gives people hope [for the future]. They will say, 'I was on the fence and I've sided with fear and voted Conservative, but actually if I'd gone with Reform it could make a difference.
"You end up in second place everywhere, and you go - actually - we're the second biggest party. The first-past-the-post system means we aren't getting the seats to reflect that."
He said Reform had done an awful lot of work campaigning in Daventry, including "about 145-miles of leafleting" and standing outside in the sun so long that, "I have a sunburnt head".
"I've spoken to a very diverse range of people, all with the same worries," he said. "We are where we are because we picked the least worst option for the last number of decades.
"It needs something to be different. We have the highest taxes in 70 years and high national debt, it isn't working for people."
2am
Another Reform UK candidate looking happy tonight. Ben Habib, deputy leader of the party says this election is a ‘politically seismic’ event and if the polls are to be believed ‘never before has an insurgent party come in and won 13 seats’. He says if his party returns MPs to Westminster ‘we are going to see a very different form of debate in Westminster.’
Worth noting tonight that the Conservative candidates are not keen on talking to the media and the Labour candidates have not turned up at the counts yet.
01.40am
Reform candidate in Northampton North Antony Antoniou has revealed he intended to stand as an independent. He said:
“I started out with no support, no team. I was surprised how much support I’ve had, it’s been quite humbling.
“I don’t trust the exit polls to be honest, I think we might do better than people originally thought.
“I was originally intending to stand as an independent then as Reform came through, I joined. I was angry at the state of the NHS, the lack of national infrastructure, and uncontrolled immigration, but we can’t talk about that with being accused of, you know, [racism]. Ths country has sold out a whole generation of young people who can’t get jobs, or earn enough to get their own home.”
01.20am
Following the national results in which Reform UK have come second in a number of seats so far in, Kettering candidate Crispian Besley is looking very chipper. He says the results so far are extraordinary and the return of Farage has made all the difference to the party. Says that the party is taking votes from across the demographics - rather than the ‘grey vote’ which had been predicted. Crispian, is a former investment banker who is voted Tory all his life. Until today.
The media is not allowed on the count floor tonight so we’re having to get our interviews from the bar - or request them in our media pen. Just been told by a source that someone has taken Tory candidate for Wellingborough David Goss to the bar to get him a drink, as things are not looking good. He is a former adviser to PM Rishi Sunak and has been parachuted in.
12.05am
Kettering’s Conservative candidate Philip Hollobone, who has been the MP for the past 19 years has turned up at the Kettering count.
A Corby Conservative source has said that Reform UK have done it for their party in Corby. Tom Pursglove, not here yet. Was elected in 2015 and has been a junior minister during his time in parliament. Labour’s Lee Barron is favourite to win in Corby and East Northants.
At the Kettering count the returning officer Adele Wylie (chief exec of North Northamptonshire Council) has just said all of the boxes from the polling stations across Northants (203 of them) are now in.
11.20pm
South Northamptonshire Conservative Sarah Bool is at the count and looking fairly pretty. Her party is defending the biggest majority in Northants and if they lose here, it will be a huge shock. Seat has been held for Andrea Leadsom since 2010.
Just spoken with Eddie McDonald from Reform UK who is standing in Corby. Says it will be an ‘uphill challenge’ to win tonight and has stood because his wife told him to as she was sick of him shouting at the telly. The personal trainer has been working in the day and canvassing at night and says hes been operating on five hours sleep.
10.20pm
Exit polls are in and predicting a Labour landslide.
Here in the counting hall at the Kettering Leisure village (where the votes for the Kettering, Corby and East Northants and Wellingborough & Rushden are being counted) there seem some nervy Labour candidates.
Can’t see Labour’s Rosie Wrighting, Gen Kitchen or Lee Barron as yet. Spoken with former Kettering MP Phil Sawford, who was part of that 1997 landslide and he says he has been around too long to predict, and says as Kettering is the ‘recount capital of the Midlands’, not to be surprised if there is a recount. Labour’s Maggie Don is also a bit apprehensive. Apparently a few votes going to Reform.
The votes have all been cast and now the counting begins. We’ll be reporting tonight from the two counting halls (in Kettering and Northampton) and will update this post throughout with the action.
There will no doubt be some big shocks - in the 2019 election all of the seven constituencies were won by the Conservatives, but that is unlikely to happen tonight.
Will Labour’s first MP in a decade, Gen Kitchen win again in Wellingborough? Will the county’s longest serving MP Philip Hollobone retain his seat that he first won in 2005, or will he be seen off by Labour? The biggest Conservative majority is in South Northamptonshire where Andrea Leadsom had a 26,000 majority and it will be an almighty swing if the Conservatives lose this safe seat.
But with former minister Andrea Leadsom, former attorney general Michael Ellis and Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris all deciding they would not stand in this election, there is no doubt that this is a weakened Conservative offering, with new candidates who are not local and have had very little time to campaign.
What is certain, whatever happens, is that tomorrow the county will be sending some new MPs to Westminster.
Results are expected in from 3am and should all be done by 7am - unless we have a dreaded recount. We hope you can stay with us throughout the night, but if you can’t make it, we’ll be sending through a new post tomorrow morning with all the results
Hilary Scott, Craig Lewis and Sarah Ward make up the reporting team.
Also keep an eye on our X feed @nnjournalism throughout the early hours as we’ll be posting to there too.
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Was concerned to discover a considerable number of disenfranchised voters in my area due to a lack of photo id. (and no useful reason to possess one).