THE Conservatives comfortably held on to the Meon Valley constituency but MP George Hollingbery was giving little away as the party suffered nationally.

Mr Hollingbery had a majority of 23,913 in 2015 when he beat Dave Alexander of UKIP. This time he had 25,692 - an increase of 1,779.

Mr Hollingbery, parliamentary private secretary to the PM Theresa May, for whom the election has been a personal disaster, declined to discuss the national picture.

He might have hoped to go straight to bed, but that looks unlikely due to the political crisis that the PM's electoral blunder has provoked.

But he later released a statement: "This was a disappointing night and it’s clear we did not sufficiently win the arguments with voters on a variety of issues but that’s democracy and we absolutely recognise what the electorate has told us and it’s now our job, as always, to listen.

"However, the Conservatives remain the largest party by some margin, with the largest share of the vote, and we have considerably broadened our appeal across the UK with tremendous results in Scotland.

"Brexit remains the biggest challenge this country faces, we do need stability right now to take the UK forward and I believe that only the Conservatives can offer the leadership and expertise needed. It must be the absolute priority to make sure we have an effective negotiation of our withdrawal from the EU and I’m sure there will be much debate and discussion about this in the coming days within all political parties and indeed across the country.

"Finally, I am pleased so many young people went out and voted in this election because it’s good news for our democracy. Of course, it presents our party with the challenge of engaging more with younger people and listening to their concerns, but this too is good news and we will embrace that challenge in the future."

Meanwhile the real shock in the Meon Valley was the downfall of UKIP, which had 1,435 votes this time with candidate Phil Bailey, compared to the 7,665 votes by Mr Alexander in 2015.

Since the Brexit vote last year, UKIP has suffered losses in the county council elections and the party appears to be on a downward spiral.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats increased their share of the votes, with Labour candidate Sheena King netting 9,932, which is comfortably more than the 5,656 Gemma McKenna got in 2015.

Candidate for the Liberal Democrats Martin Tod, only marginally improved on the 2015 result of 4,987 by 913 votes.

Despite the emphatic victory for Mr Hollingbery, he was in no mood to talk and chose not discuss the national picture, but instead focused on holding the seat.

Mr Hollingbery, a close aide of Theresa May, said: "I am absolutely delighted to be re-elected for the Meon Valley, I have been out on a regular basis across the constituency talking to voters."

Speaking directly after the result was announced at River Park Leisure Centre, he said: "Thank you for my constituents who voted for me for a third time, which I am extremely grateful for.

"I do want to pay a compliment to my staff. No MP can do the job without the staff.

"They are absolute Trojans, they get back to all those people that get in touch I could not exist without them."

Labour candidate for the Meon Valley, Sheena King said that the result gives Labour a "solid foundation" to build on in the Meon Valley.

She said: "We have massively increased our vote share and have a solid foundation to build on."

UKIP candidate, Peter Bailey who came in fourth, said the result nationally shows that Theresa May is likely to be an ex Prime Minister and voters are saying "enough is enough".

Andrew Hayward from the Green Party had around 500 less votes than the result in 2015.

The turnout this time out was 73.14 per cent which is almost two per cent up on the 2015 figure.

George Hollingbery (Conservative) 35,624

Sheena King (Labour) 9,932

Martin Tod (Liberal Democrat) 5,900

Phil Bailey (UKIP) 1,435

Andrew Hayward (Green) 1,301

Turnout 73.14 %