The Windsor election count at Magnet Leisure Centre last Thursday night was in major contrast to the excitement eight months earlier when the Royal Borough local elections were held in April.

On that occasion, anxious faces and a tense atmosphere indicated a seismic shift in public opinion as the conservative majority was smashed and veteran councillors lost their seats.

But there was an air of inevitability to last week's result - thanks to the Exit Poll revealed at 10am, which indicated a likely Tory majority across the country.

No surprises then, when Adam Afriyie comfortably retained his seat as Windsor's MP when results were announced six hours later.

Watched by his family he told supporters and opponents he had never taken winning for granted, saying: "We have the British people to thank for coming to a conclusion."

He acknowledged that the Brexit division but said: “I hope today will see an end to all that, I don’t want to see a one nation Conservative party, but I want to see one nation nation.”

Mr Afriyie (Conservative), whose constituency covers Binfield, Warfield and Winkfield as well as Windsor - won with 31,501 votes.

David Buckley (Independent) had 508, Wisdom Da Costa, (Independent) - 376, Finton McKeown, (Green Party)- 1,796, Peter Sherman, (Labour), 8,147 and Julian Tisi, (Liberal Democrat), 11,422.

Earlier in the night - with the votes still to come in - Labour candidate Peter Sherman said his party had done well on the doorstep on social issues.

But he said: "Jeremy Corbyn proved a problem" - adding: "Never has a leader had such a negative effect.

“It was very difficult pitching Jeremy on the doorstep. We couldn’t get past the issue on anti-Semitism and they didn’t think he was capable of leading the country.” Windsor’s Liberal Democrat candidate Julian Tisi said that the conservative success was clearly down to the public’s need to get Brexit done.

He said: “Now there can be no excuses, they have to get a deal done and if they don’t by the end of the year I hope people remember the promises that were made."

He warned that getting a trade deal would take much longer than Boris Johnson said it would.