Rewind: Lincoln general election 2019 results

We are the Yarborough Leisure Centre bringing you live results tonight. The polls are now closed.

Good evening,

My name is Calvin, I’m the Local Democracy Reporter for The Lincolnite and I will be reporting live from Yarborough Leisure Centre for tonight’s Lincoln count.

The exit poll is in and the Conservatives are predicted an 86 majority.

Full breakdown below:

• CON 368 (+50)
• LAB 191 (-71)
• SNP 55 (+20)
• LD 13 (+1)
• PC 3 (-1)
• GRN 1 (+0)
• BXP 0 (+0)
• OTH 19 (+1)

We are now awaiting for the the first ballots to arrive for the counters, who are ready to get on it!

The Scouts are now bringing in the ballots from polling stations from across Lincoln. Sean Strange is our photographer tonight.

There are 68 counters at the Yarborough Leisure Centre tonight, and they are now verifying the ballots as they arrive. 

Angela Andrews, the Chief Exec of City of Lincoln Council, is the returning officer for the election in the city — basically in charge of the democratic process, from voter registration to announcing the results.

Simon Walters from the City of Lincoln Council is the count supervisor tonight. 

This is the area at the back where they look into ballots which are spoilt or unclear 

More ballots from across Lincoln are arriving (via the Scouts) as the counters are verifying the votes.

Conservative county councillor Richard Davies says the exit poll is “exciting and interesting” and that the party has put a lot of effort into Lincoln this election.

He added that he hopes that politics can move back to “policies not people” now.

Ballot boxes from 59 of 60 polling stations arrived at Yarborough Leisure Centre. Once the verification is done, counting will begin. There was a queue at 10pm at one of the polling stations.

The postal votes are still being verified. 

Liberal Democrat candidate Caroline Kenyon says the exit poll is “not the most wonderful result”.

She adds that the country needs to take another look at the first past the post voting system.

Labour councillor Chris Burke says the party’s campaign in Lincoln is the “best they have ever had”.

He adds that people should wait for the final result and until “every vote is counted”.

We’ve been told all candidates will be given the opportunity for a speech once the results are announced. Here are the Conservative tellers tallying up votes.

We are still waiting for the last ballot boxes from St Faith School in Carholme/West End, where there was a queue for voting at 10pm.

The postal votes have been verified and now today’s ballots are being verified.

Brexit Party candidate Reece Wilkes described the exit poll as “brilliant”,

He predicts that the party will take votes away from the Labour Party across the country tonight.

Green Party’s Sally Horscroft says she is disappointed by the exit poll.

She added that she is also disappointed by the way Boris Johnson has handled his campaign.

Former UKIP candidate Nick Smith is here, he is hoping that The Brexit Party do not take many votes away from the Conservatives in Lincoln.

He says he “wants Brexit done”.

Ahead of the turnout, it’s worth taking a look at how many voters registered across the city.

A total of 74,778 people have registered to vote across Lincoln for the election compared to 73,111 in 2017.

That’s an increase of 1,667 more voters – 129 more people than Labour candidate Karen Lee’s majority of 1,538 at the last election.

All of the ballot boxes have now arrived. So has the Conservative candidate Karl McCartney. Karen Lee is still not here.

Conservative candidate Karl McCartney has arrived.

Let’s look at what’s at stake here in Lincoln.

The seat is held by Labour, who will be hoping to keep their grip on the constituency.

Karen Lee currently holds the seat by a tight margin of 1,538.

With that in mind, the Conservatives will be looking to turn that number around and add Lincoln to the list of gains they hope to make tonight.

Karl McCartney, who held the seat for the Tories between 2010 and 2017, has set his sights on regaining the seat.

A feel for the atmosphere at the count tonight 

We are nearing the end of verification of votes (so we will know the turnout soon).

Labour’s Donald Nannestad, who is deputy leader at City of Lincoln Council, says he is hoping for a good turnout tonight.

He says there has been a good response in Carholme.

The counters are having a break at the moment before actual counting of the votes begins.

All ballot boxes have been verified. The total votes are at 50,763 – a turnout of 67.74%.

Aside from the main event, we also have a council by-election in Witham ward on the city council.

Candidates are as follows:

• Bill Mara, Conservative
• Charles Allan Parker, Liberal Democrats
• Michele Paule Servaud, Green Party
• Calum Watt, Labour Party

Turnout is 68.5%.

Conservative councillor Thomas Dyer says the party has had a “positive campaign”.

He adds that Lincoln is a tight seat and that the exit poll shows the public want Brexit done.

Counting has started.

Counters are making their way through the ballots.

The best dressed kudos tonight goes to Angela Andrews, the City of Lincoln Council chief exec and returning officer, wearing an oversized scarf (it’s a bit chilly in here) — those are hearts on the scarf — over a black knee length dress. 

There are 68 counters going through the votes tonight. They are getting paid £14 per hour, from 9.30pm until 4.30am. They all have to wear black.

Whichever way the contest goes tonight, the constituency is a key seat for either party.

A marginal seat, the majority for any candidate has not broke the 1,600 threshold since 2005.

During Labour’s dominance of the seat from 1997 to 2010, the margin topped a high of 11,130.

But, since 2010, the seat has been a battleground for the two major parties – hence the toing and froing between Conservatives and Labour.

Mr McCartney won the seat nine years ago with a majority of just 1,058.

With Lincoln being one of the top 10 tightest marginal constituencies in the UK, there is a significant media presence here at the count — mainly local media though.

Liberal Party’s Charles Shaw says he is hoping for a “reasonable vote” at this year’s election.

Labour’s Karen Lee has arrived.

Karen Lee says it’s “undoubtedly been a bad night” for Labour, but adds that she has fought a “wonderful” campaign.

She said that she thinks Lincoln “could go either way”.

All the votes are bundled and they’re going to start counting the bundles — red and blue binders — you know what that means…

Tension is building as we press on towards a result.

Final tallies are being counted.

Candidates are being briefed on the preliminary results.

Result in from Lincolnshire – Conservatives hold Cleethorpes.

Massive swing to Conservatives from Labour in Scunthorpe.

Conservative Karl McCartney regains the Lincoln seat.

Here’s the vote breakdown for Lincoln

Here’s what Karl McCartney had to say about regaining his seat 

Lib Dem Caroline Kenyon came in third. Here’s her reaction 

Just two years of being Lincoln MP, here is what Karen Lee had to say 

All but one Greater Lincolnshire seats have been declared — a sea of blue! Historical Labour seats in Grimsby and Scunthorpe have now been taken over by the Conservatives. Follow our extra coverage on the website. We’ll be wrapping our live blog here. Thanks for following tonight/this morning.