Warrington South General Election result

After snatching the seat from Conservative David Mowat two years ago, it was Mr Rashid's turn to concede as Andy Carter won a 2,010 vote majority for the Conservatives.

Notoriously unpredictable and volatile, the seat always surprises.

Yet this defeat for Labour was perhaps one of the less surprising on a desperate night for the party in the north west.

Mr Carter had a long run at the victory and was predicted to win in the polls.

The businessman from Lymm says he will now be on a train at Bank Quay station on Monday ready to take his seat in Parliament and start to get Brexit done with a Conservative majority in Parliament.

Andy Carter with Paul Campbell

In a warm acceptance speech in the count in Birchwood, he said people of Warrington South have put their trust in him and it is an incredible honour.

He promised not to let people down and get Brexit sorted.

And he said protecting the green belt is important and says a new hospital is a priority - it was one of his key campaign points.

Mr Rashid said he was proud of the campaign he and his team fought.

Faisal with Cllr Rebecca Knowles

And he said being an MP has been the privilege of his life.

While it was also a disappointing night for fellow Remain candidate Cllr Ryan Bate.

The Liberal Democrat almost double the party's vote from 2017, but ironically those votes may well have cost Labour the win.

READ MORE > Catch up on everything you missed last night by clicking here

Instead it was Andy Carter's night. And it follows the general pattern in Warrington South (with two exceptions including Faisal Rashid) that the winning candidate comes from the party forming the Government.

New MP Mr Carter says he expects the Government to move ‘very quickly’ over Brexit following the election.

He added: “I think the message has been very clear here in Warrington South and across the UK that people want Brexit to happen

"The level of trust in democracy had fallen and this was an opportunity to get that back and to get the country moving forward.

"This was a multi-level campaign, we’ve talked about the need to regenerate parts of Warrington so that we can avoid using the green belt for building houses on.

"We’ve talked about the need to invest in our hospital here in Warrington, so those things have been really key as well.

"I want to see more money going into our schools in Warrington as well and that’s something I’ll fight for when I get to Westminster.

"I think my colleagues in the Liberal Democrats, in Labour, we need to work together now, within Warrington, within the council, as a Member of Parliament, to do the best for Warrington."

Mr Rashid believes the Labour Party 'needs to regroup' and think about what went wrong.

The politician also highlighted the party's reduced majority in Warrington North.

Faisal Rashid speaking to Cllr Steve Parish after the result

He said: “Of course, people gave their decision and that’s it.

“We worked really hard and you can see overall, nationally, what happened, even in the North we lost the 9,000 majority, over here we gave a really good fight so that tells you that Warrington South still want people like myself.

“But we will see what happens.”

When asked whether he hopes to return as a candidate, he said: “I’ve not decided yet, I’ll just take some time.”

Cllr Ryan Bate also reflected on what he labelled as a ‘tough’ and ‘disappointing’ night for the Liberal Democrats.

Cllr Ryan Bate (centre)

He believes they will ‘bounce back’ following a period of reflection and expects the party to be a ‘force’ in the local elections in Warrington in May.

“I think we started out in the campaign with a really positive message for the country and we had a great manifesto,” he added.

“I like to think I fought a reasonably good campaign as a reasonably strong candidate but I think that was lost in the noise somewhat.

“The campaign has been reduced and squeezed to two big parties fighting it out over Brexit dividing lines and I think we’ve been a little bit lost in Warrington South and elsewhere in the country as well.

“I think it’s fairly clear to see that lots of people voted tactically, we won’t probably ever be able to put a quantity to that.

“But one thing I’d like to be really clear about is I think while there are lots of people who voted Labour tactically on the issue of Brexit, I think there are also an awful lot of people who have voted Conservative, while they may have wanted to vote for us, simply because of fear of Jeremy Corbyn getting anywhere near Downing Street, so I think we’ve lost tactical votes from both directions and it’s really unfair to say that we’ve taken votes particularly off one party or another.”

Asked whether he hopes to stand again for Parliament, he said: “We’ll see.”

WARRINGTON SOUTH RESULTS IN FULL >

Brexit Party Clare Aspinall 1,635

Liberal Democrat Ryan Bate 5,732

Conservatives Andy Carter 28,187

SDP Kevin Hickson 168

Labour Faisal Rashid 26,177

Turnout 72 per cent