It was a small white wedding - he wore his trademark white suit and his elegant bride wore a cream two piece.

Close friends joined the wedding party at a small reception held at Fiona's cottage in Egerton, Kent.

Mr Bell spent his wedding night there but was up at 5am to drive to Tatton for a constituency surgery before travelling down south again to Felixstowe for a charity concert.

On Monday he invited journalists to meet his wife at a press conference held in the picturesque garden of his tiny cottage in Great Budworth.

The couple held hands and Fiona occasionally glanced at her husband for assurance as the gathered hoards of journalists popped the questions.

Asked if she was looking forward to being an MP's wife, Fiona answered: "I am looking forward to being Martin's wife."

But the project manager and design accountant said she had admired her husband's decision to stand in the Tatton constituency.

"I rang her after the election and said I'm sorry I've won," he joked.

The couple will divide their time between London, Kent and Great Budworth.

"Tatton is absolutely beautiful," she said.

"I wish I was closer and could get to see it more often."

Fiona, a keen gardener, will get a taste of Cheshire life at her first official engagement on Saturday - the Lower Peover Gooseberry Show.

But the honeymoon will have to wait.

Mr Bell travels to Burundi on Sunday and two days after his return home he will be admitted to hospital for a hip operation.

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