Kemi Badenoch scrapes through in North West Essex as her majority is slashed by almost 25,000

Conservative Kemi Badenoch narrowly won the new North West Essex seat in the General Election after seeing her majority slashed from 27,594 to just 2,610.

The woman who was Business and Trade Secretary and women and equalities minister in Rishi Sunak’s Government polled 19,360 votes – less than half of the 39,714 she got in 2019 when she was defending the former Saffron Walden seat she first won in 2017.

Second was Labour’s Issy Waite, a 21-year-old student activist from Suffolk, with 16,750 votes – double the number her party achieved in 2019.

Grant StClair-Armstrong, standing as an Independent but still on the ballot papers as Reform UK’s candidate, was third with 7,668, Liberal Democrat Smita Rajesh was fourth with 6,055 and the Green Party’s Edward Gildea fifth with 2,846. Independents Andrew Green (852), Erik Bonino (699) and Niko Omilana (156) completed the eight candidates.

The turnout was 68.1%, down from 72.86%.

The result is in stark contrast to the 2019 election, which saw Mrs Badenoch increase her vote share to 63% from 68.1% two years earlier, when she became the first woman to represent the Saffron Walden constituency, which had been Tory-held since 1922.

A nervous-looking Mrs Badenoch was ushered into the count at Lord Butler Leisure Centre in Saffron Walden moments before returning officer – and Uttlesford District Council chief executive – Peter Holt declared the result just after 3.30am.

In her victory speech, Mrs Badenoch thanked her family and supporters, and said that it had “clearly been a very tough night for the Conservatives”.

“Many of my friends and colleagues have lost their seats. They have served their country with distinction, their service will never be in vain, but the public have spoken and they have said loud and clear that the Conservatives have lost their trust,” she said.

“It’s also clear they have lost trust in politics and that is a big danger. The Conservatives must come back… be in no doubt that work starts now.”

She was then rushed out to her waiting car as TV crews and reporters scrambled to get a comment from the 44-year-old MP, who is widely tipped to be the next leader of the Conservatives. But she remained tight-lipped and left without saying anything further about her next move.