The last constituency result sailed into view this evening when Lib Dem Angus MacDonald took Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire from the SNP. The general election delivered a Lib Dem parliamentary party of 72. My expectation of 40-50 seats for the Lib Dems was way off the mark. My excuse is that we got such a beating in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections that we dared not to believe positive news from opinion polls.
My hopes for the Lib Dems in this election were:
- a significant increase in the number of Lib Dem MPs;
- recovering the position of the 3rd party in the House of Commons (I refused to entertain the suggestions that the Lib Dems could become the official opposition on the simple grounds that it was a fantasy in this election though the future could be different);
- we achieve a creditable result in Gateshead Central and Whickham (compared to most other contests in the North East, it was creditable).
I went to the count for Gateshead Central and Whickham at the Gateshead International Stadium. It was quite a relaxed affair and unusually it finished by 1am, instead of the usual 3-4am. It meant I could be home in time to watch most of the results coming in. I made the mistake of deciding to stay up for the declaration of Jeremy Hunt's result. It wasn't until 5am and it was daylight outside when it arrived and it was one of the few disappointments of the night - he survived (just). Off to bed at that point for a 2 hour kip and then I was up again to feed the livestock.
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