Conservative Alistair Burt has retained his North East Bedfordshire seat, polling more than half of the votes.

Mr Burt received 38,139 votes – with Labour’s Julian Vaughan his closer competitor with 18,271.

The majority is just shy of 20,000 – 5,000 less than in 2015.

Following the result, Mr Burt said: “Can I thank coleagues who have been candidates in this election, we’ve had two good hustings together. The campaign has been handled as it almost always is in North East Bedfordshire – without any negativity. We’ve all had the chance to put forward our case and a particular congratulations to Julian Vaughan, the Labour candidate, on what is a very good result for the Labour party here. But not quite good enough!

After thanking all his colleagues and supporters, he added: “And of course my wonderful wife who is doing the photographs just now – just to say thank you for 34 years now of supporting me in the parliamentary elections. I’m very appreciative.

“Can I thank the people of North East Bedfordshire, this is a wonderful seat to represent.

“I’m very fortunate, very lucky. Every day I thank my good fortune in representing such a wonderful place.”

About what the night meant for the Conservative Party, Mr Burt added: “I’m very conscious that when parliament meets next week it will meet in unexpected circumstances.

“We have some very big issues to deal with including our future in Europe and the threat of terror and we all have a lot of responsibilities. I’ve heard a lot of messages from people in North East Beds and those messages will be well learned and reflected in parliament.”

He said parties would need to work together to deal with the threat from terror and that, in the words of Jo Cox - MP for Batley and Spen who was murdered last year – “there is a lot more that unites us than divides us”.

Result:

Alistair Burt (Con) 38,139 ELECTED

Philippa Fleming (Green) 1,215

Stephen Rutherford (Lib Dem) 3,693

Duncan Strachan (UKIP) 1896

Julian Vaughan (Lab) 18271

Turnout: 64,220