Election success for Surrey Lib Dems’ group leader 

Surrey Lib Dems would like to pay tribute to the three hard-working members of their group who stood in last week’s general election.  

Among the many Lib Dem successes on the night was the election of six new MPs to represent constituencies across Surrey. One of these is the Leader of the Lib Dem group on Surrey County Council, Will Forster, elected to represent his Woking constituency in the new parliament.  

Will took 49.9% of the vote, winning with a majority of 11,246 and beating the Conservative incumbent into a distant second place.  

There was, however, also some disappointment. It was always going to be tough to oust Jeremy Hunt from his seat in the newly drawn constituency of Godalming & Ash. But the exit poll on the night called the contest between the erstwhile Chancellor of the Exchequer and Paul Follows ‘too close to call.’ It went down to the wire but at the final count the Surrey Lib Dem was disappointed to have fallen short by just 811 votes. 

In Spelthorne, previously the seat of Kwasi Kwarteng and traditionally a Conservative stronghold, Harry Boparai increased the Lib Dem vote share despite being on the wrong end of tactical voting.