Landslide victory for Conservatives with John Howell's fifth election win

The constituency, which covers much of South Oxfordshire, saw a 77 per cent turnout this year and – despite efforts from the Liberal Democrats to swing the result – the Conservatives secured the seat with 32,189 votes.

The Lib Dems took second place with 18,136, followed by Labour with 5,698 and the Green Party's 2,736.

Read again: The General Election in Oxfordshire – as it happened

Mr Howell was first elected in 2008 and held onto Henley in 2010, 2015 and 2017.

In his latest campaign he told voters that the issues which were important to them – such as health and social care, housing and infrastructure, education and climate change – were being ‘drowned out’ by Brexit.

Speaking about Labour's push for a second referendum he said: "I can find few who wish to go back to square one on this and start again. It is important that we have good relations with mainland Europe whatever the outcome of Brexit."

After winning his fifth term yesterday morning at White Horse Tennis and Leisure Centre in Abingdon, Mr Howell told his supporters: “It is a great privilege to be elected again for this constituency and I thank all of those who re-elected me for their kind wishes and particularly for their votes.

“During the election I made it quite clear that I was a moderate, one nation Conservative and I will be able to be at the centre of that part of conservatism as it goes forward into the future.”

Read also: Layla Moran now favourite to be next Lib Dem leader

“What this means is it’s about continuing to focus on education and continuing to insure we get the right amounts of money for our schools.

“I will continue to focus on housing and planning and the communities can take the advantages that I’ve helped bring in the form of planning and most importantly I will continue to focus on climate change.”

This year's election results saw Labour lose votes nationally from their northern heartlands, and the party's Henley candidate Zaid Marham said this was largely down to Brexit.

He said: “I think the main reason it’s gone like that is because the people in the northern constituencies abandoned us over Brexit: I think that’s an error on our part. There were many people in the Labour Party that were pushing for us to adopt a pro-remain position which I now think was a mistake.”

Read also: A34 ambulance crash victim named as Adrian Bourne

The Lib Dems, however, gained 9,651 votes since the election in 2017.

Their candidate Laura Coyle said: “We’ve fought a very vibrant and positive campaign and it's definitely made a bit of a splash.”

She said she had managed to steal Tory votes because many who normally back the Conservatives had lost faith in that party's direction.

Ms Coyle said: “When we were out on the campaign trail in terms of the Tory vote there were lots of people talking about Brexit but they were also talking about the direction of the Conservative Party generally and talking about it no longer representing their values because it’s become so much more right wing. There have also been issues with planning particularly surrounding the Oxford Cambridge Expressway, they don’t trust the promise to cancel it.”