General Election 2019: Kenilworth and Southam candidates react to exit poll

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Jeremy Wright, the Conservative Party candidate, is trying to keep his seat for the Kenilworth and Southam constituency.

The other candidates include Richard Dickson for the Liberal Democrats, Alison Firth for the Greens, Nicholas Green for the Monster Raving Loony Party and Antony Tucker for the Labour Party.

The Liberal Democrat candidate Richard Dickson said: "I think clearly the Brexit Party supporting the Conservative Party has won them a lot of votes nationally. It tends to be when the Labour Party has a credible message and a credible leader that the Liberal Democrats do well as well. We've done well despite what seeing the negative figures for the Labour Party.

"In Kenilworth and Southam we're pushing the Labour Party very close, which we haven't done for the last two general elections. So it's a step in the right direction.

"Actually I was really interested in the votes from different parts of the constituency because inevitably all political parties are stronger in certain parts, but I've been seeing a very similar trend right across the constituency from Kenilworth to Southam down to Kineton and Wellesbourne a very similar trend where Liberal Democrats are quite credibly as a second party there whether that comes out in the votes overall I don't know.

"Certainly it's very close between us and Labour. Clearly Labour will have lost some people who were inspired by Brexit to vote for the Conservatives."

The Green Party candidate Alison Firth said: "I feel quite depressed about it. I'm surprised really with all the climate emergency going on that people are still voting conservative. I don't really understand why people are voting for them. Is it because they're scared? Is it because they're being fed lies? Is it just because... safe with what you know.

"It's time for a change though. It's very sad. It worries me from a climate perspective because really the conservatives have next to nothing in their manifesto that says how we're really going to tackle it."

Nicholas Green, the candidate for the Monster Raving Loony Party, said: "We haven't seen too many votes really have we for meself. I was hoping to beat last time, because I got 370 in 2015. It doesn't look like I will beat it.

"But hey the victory for me is actually being here, standing basically that's what we all say at the Looney Party that participating in elections is a victory full stop. So we're glad to be here and most of the other people are glad we're here as well to keep up the tradition of the Looney Party because we been going now for 37 years since 1982.

"We need to keep it going. We need to keep candidates running for elections or else the party with die. I'm glad I'm here, and I'm enjoying every minute of it."

Anthony Tucker, the Labour candidate, said: "I mean the exit poll is disappointing. I don't think we can deny that.

"I think locally I hope we have done significantly better than has been suggested nationally. I am very proud of the campaign we have run. My biggest hope for tonight is that the exit poll is no where near as accurate as some people have made it out to be,.and that we've held onto as many Labour seats as possible."

Jeremy Wright said: I remember very clearly listening the exit polls in 2017 and almost falling over and saying that cannot be right and it was, and that of course was disappointing, if you were a conservative in the exit poll in the 2017.

"This exit poll is hugely encouraging if you're a conservative. But I am not going to believe it until I see the results, and I am not sure all the results across the country are going to be uniform so you can't assume that if we're winning seats in a particular part of the country we're going to win seats in every part of the country. So I think we got to wait and see. But is encouraging.

"What I think is best about the situation we're in now is that people are clearly deciding that there needs to be a clear direction of travel for the country now.

"We don't want to stick where we are with the wheels spinning in British politics, which is what I think we've seen for three years. And that means somebody has got to have an overall majority and been given a mandate to do something and that's not just get out of the European Union, now I think that's important as a preliminary step but also it's go on to do other things as well."