General Election 2024: Liberal Democrat Ian Sollom speaks of ‘new era in Parliament’ as he beats Conservative Anthony Browne to become MP for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire

Liberal Democrat Ian Sollom says it’s “fantastic to be on this side of the winning line” after being elected as MP for the new constituency of St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire.

Dr Sollom won 19,517 votes to defeat Conservative Anthony Browne, who polled 14,896 and took second place.

Mr Browne was elected in 2019 as Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, but switched to the newly-created St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire, where he resumed his battle with Dr Sollom, who he defeated five years ago.

Dr Sollom told the Cambridge Independent that the groundwork for his campaign was laid during that campaign five years ago.

“We laid the groundwork in 2019 and in the run up to 2019 for both the South Cambridgeshire victory tonight and for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire. It’s been a long road, but it’s fantastic to be on this side of the winning line,” he said.

He continued: “It’s been a hard fought campaign but a good one, and that’s what you want to see in a campaign. As I said in my speech, you want to give voters a choice and you want to give voters the opportunity to scrutinise that choice, and I think we had a really good campaign.”

Mr Sollom will be taking a seat in Parliament alongside many of his Liberal Democrat colleagues, including Pippa Heylings, who won in South Cambridgeshire, and Charlotte Cane, who successfully unseated Conservative Lucy Frazer to take Ely and East Cambridgeshire.

The Lib Dems are now expected to be the third biggest party, having secured 52 seats with 98 left to declare.

“It will be a new era in Parliament,” Dr Sollom said. He continued: “I think the Lib Dems have an important role in that the Conservatives will be in disarray.

“There will be a lot of soul searching in the Conservative Party. The Lib Dems must go in and be the strong opposition as the third party.”

It is likely that Reform UK hurt the Conservative chances here, with candidate Guy Lachlan winning 5,673 votes.

Mr Lachlan said: “We had no idea of the level of support there is for the party in this constituency and we had no idea where it was or who the people were - we do now.”

Speaking after the result, Mr Browne described the “national political hurricane” that had led to so many of his colleagues losing their seats.

“In this seat, as well as others, Reform made the difference between me winning and losing, if those Reform voters had voted for me,” he said. “One of the lessons - and there’s lots of lessons we need to learn from - we need to learn to put personal agendas behind and work for the common good and stop the infighting and a whole lot of other things. One of them is if you keep promising lower immigration, lower taxes and deliver the precise opposite then at some point the electorate will punish you.”

Mr Browne thanked those who supported and voted for him.

He said: “Serving as the Member of Parliament for South Cambridgeshire since 2019 has been the honour of a lifetime. During that time, I have addressed the issues that matter most to our community, from improving our transport infrastructure to enhancing local healthcare services. I am particularly proud of our achievements, such as the new hospitals, rail links, and roads we’ve been able to deliver.

“To the residents of St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire; it has been a privilege to get to know you better and to hear your concerns and aspirations. This new constituency remains a wonderful place to live and work, and I have no doubt that everyone will rise to the challenges they face. I remain dedicated to the region and will continue to work to support our community in any capacity I can.

“Our journey does not end here. I encourage everyone to stay engaged and continue pushing for the changes we need.”

Taking third place in the constituency was Labour’s Marianna Masters with 6,918 votes, and she said: “Although we haven’t made it, I’ve been really proud of being able to convey the Labour message across the constituency.”

She described the election as “largely clean” with “very good, spirited and robust debate”.

“I am obviously disappointed by the result for me personally, but overjoyed that the country has looked to change and that there is going to be a new administration, overwhelmingly backed by the country,” Ms Masters added.

Among the other candidates Stephen Ferguson (Independent) secured 2,941 votes and Kathryn Fisher (Green), 2,664.

Mr Ferguson said: “Everybody says that independents don’t win. Well, I haven’t won but we’ve worked really, really hard at that.”

To Mr Sollom, he said: “I’m still going to be a district and county councillor and I’m going to be working with you to get the best for our area.”

Ms Fisher told the assembled crowd at the Imperial War Museum Duxford that she is “not going anywhere”.

“The Green Party is growing rapidly. Young people are flooding to join us and our membership is ballooning. As long as there are people and a planet to fight for the Green Party will keep fighting.

“I am not going anywhere and my arms are open to anyone who wishes to fight this fight with me,” she said.

Bev White (Party of Women) polled 274 votes and added: “This election has given us a platform that nobody would give us prior to tonight and prior to the election being called.”