General Election 2024: Guildford chooses ‘change’ as Liberal Democrats take seat
The Liberal Democrats have won the Guildford seat as Zoe Franklin defeated Conservative MP Angela Richardson.
Mrs Franklin was announced as the winner at 5:49am on Friday (July 5) after a count at the Spectrum leisure centre in Guildford. After the Lib Dems played their cards close to their chest all evening, Zoe Franklin relaxed into the proclamation of her premiership as MP.
Conservatives saw their majority more than doubled from around 3,337 votes in 2019 to 8,429. Even if Conservatives absorbed the Reform UK vote, they would have still been lacking thousands of votes.
A councillor for North Guildford from 2008- 2015, Zoe is now stepping up to represent her home. Only the second Liberal Democrat MP in Guildford since 1910, it certainly marks a change election.
She replaces Mrs Richardson who has been Tory MP for the constituency since 2019. Also the former Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party, Mrs Richardson is one of a number of Conservatives who have lost their seat.
Polls closed at 10pm on Thursday (July 4), before hours of verification and counting took place to eventually confirm Mrs Franklin’s victory to loud cheers from Lib Dem supporters.
She won 22,937 votes, with Conservative Mrs Richardson coming second with 14,508, Reform UK candidate came third with 4,395, Labour candidate Sarah Gillinson fourth with 3,931, Green Party’s Sam Peters with 2,268 and John Morris of The Peace Party with just 255.
Speaking to SurreyWorld after her win, Mrs Franklin said it felt “amazing” to call herself Guildford MP and it was such an immense privilege and “incredibly humbling that the people of Guildford have chosen me”.
With a Labour landslide of at least 409 seats, and Liberal Democrats gaining 62 seats, Mrs Franklin is part of a new political landscape. “It’s clear across the UK that people have chosen change,” she said. “The people in Guildford have chosen change.”
In her acceptance speech, Mrs Franklin said “the work starts now” and outlined her priorities are holding water companies to account with local issues of sewage and water supply, work to get more GPs and NHS dentists, as well as scrapping the two-benefit cap.
Also speaking after the result, Conservative Angela Richardson said it was “disappointing but it was not unexpected”. She claimed “the die was cast long ago” and speculated issues of Partygate and Liz Truss’ disastrous mini budget. Mrs Richardson added it was a “difficult time for the Conservatives”.
Mrs Richardson reiterated her pride at how her party had performed and said her group has been working “flat out for seven days a week”. She said that outside the polling station people thanked her for the constituency work.
She said: “Guildford just needs to carry on.”
Guildford result in full:
Liberal Democrat, Zoe Franklin: 22,937
Labour, Sarah Gillinson: 3,931
The Peace Party, John Morris: 255
Green, Sam Peters: 2,268
Conservatives, Angela Richardson: 14,508
Reform UK, Dennis Saunders: 4,395
Turnout: 68.6%