Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey has held onto his Kingston and Surbiton seat with a comfortable majority, in an exciting night for the party which is tipped to gain dozens of seats across the country. The MP beat Conservative Helen Edward by 17,235 votes, securing 25,870 votes overall, 6,746 votes more than the majority he secured at the 2019 election.

Labour's Eunice O'Dame came third with 6,561 votes, followed by Reform UK's Mark Fox with 4,787 votes and the Green's Debojyoti Das with 3,009 votes. Independent Yvonne Tracey came next with 1,177 votes, while the Workers Party's Ali Abdulla received 395 votes and the Official Monster Raving Loony Party's A. Gent Chinners won 230 votes.

Mr Davey, 58, has represented the constituency since 1997, briefly losing the seat to the Conservatives in 2015 before regaining it in 2017. He married Lib Dem councillor Emily Davey in 2005.

His attention-grabbing antics in the six-week run-up to the election saw the Lib Dems secure widespread media coverage, with all kinds of stunts including paddleboard falls and bungee jumping, in a bid to draw attention to the party's policies. Health and social care was at the heart of his campaign, along with tackling illegal sewage dumping and rejoining the single market.

When the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) visited Kingston town centre, Lib Dem voters praised Mr Davey for showing humanity on the campaign trail. Retired NHS worker Simon Cunniffe, 65, described the party leader as 'more human' and 'honest' than other politicians. His partner David Barrable, 75, added: "Ed Davey is the only one who's actually got any heart."

While the exit poll predicted a Labour landslide of 410 seats, it also pointed to huge wins for the Lib Dems – predicting the party would win more than five times the seats that it won at the 2019 election, going from 11 to 61. With the actual results being announced, it gained Wimbledon and Carshalton from the Tories, among its successes of the night.

Mr Davey posted on X, after the exit poll was announced, that the party was on course for its best results in a century thanks to its 'positive campaign with health and care at its heart'. He wrote: "I am humbled by the millions of people who backed us to both kick the Conservatives out of power and deliver the change our country needs."

Mr Davey has faced questions over why he did not do more to help Post Office subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted in the Horizon scandal, when he was junior postal affairs minister in the coalition government from 2010 to 2012. He wrote in The Guardian in February: "I'm sorry I did not see through the Post Office's lies – and that it took me five months to meet Alan Bates, the man who has done so much to uncover it."

Ex-deputy postmistress Yvonne Tracey, an Independent councillor, based her campaign on fighting for justice for subpostmasters and said she decided to run against Mr Davey because of how he acted towards them while minister. Turnout was 65.7 per cent in Kingston and Surbiton, down 8.5 per cent from the 2019 general election.

In a speech after the results were announced, Mr Davey said he was 'overwhelmed' by the public's reponse to him opening up about caring for his terminally-ill mum as a teenager and raising his disabled son – particularly from fellow carers. He said: "I'm grateful that we've been able to bring caring out of the shadows in this campaign and we will continue to stand up for a society where we value care and properly support carers because we can't afford not to."

Mr Davey said he had enjoyed hearing from voters in Kingston and Surbiton, and across the UK, about 'the challenges they've faced and their hopes for the future'. He continued: "People who work hard raising families, caring for loved ones, playing by the rules, but finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. People who've had to wait hours for ambulances, weeks to see a GP or months for urgent cancer treatment. People who are angry at the filthy sewage being pumped into their rivers, lakes and onto our beaches. People who feel let down, taken for granted and are desperate for change."

The party leader said many voters had turned to the Lib Dems and promised that elected MPs will fight to fix the health and care crisis in the next parliament. He added: "We put your concerns at the heart of our campaign – number one amongst them, fixing the health and care crisis so you can find a doctor or find an NHS dentist when you need them and so your loved ones get high-quality care when you need it, where you need it."

Mr Das told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the Greens had achieved a 'very good' outcome in the constituency and that undecided voters had connected with the party's policies on the doorstep.

He said: "I think we did extremely well, compared to what we did last time, we have increased our votes by threefold, but we could have done better and I hope in the coming election we will do much better given the support we have received… from our constituents and people are really resonating with our policies and with our pledges."