How the 2024 general election changed Surrey

It has been a year since the general election which saw Labour win a landslide majority.

It was also a historic election for Surrey, which saw some dramatic changes to its political landscape 12 months ago.

So what were some of the impacts of the result?

For more than a century, the number of times a constituency in Surrey has been won by a party other than the Conservatives can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

But a year ago, in a truly seismic result, the Liberal Democrats gained six seats - Dorking and Horley, Epsom and Ewell, Esher and Walton, Guildford, Surrey Heath, and Woking.

Since then the new MPs - Chris Coghlan, Helen Maguire, Monica Harding, Zöe Franklin, Al Pinkerton and Will Forster - have been vocal on a range of issues, including Thames Water, the NHS and special education needs and disability services (Send).

Several of the MPs who had been major figures in the Conservative governments between 2010 and 2024, including Michael Gove, Dominic Raab, and Kwasi Kwarteng, stood down before the election.

Other Tories lost their seats, while former chancellor Sir Jeremy Hunt held on in Godalming and Ash.

Dr Ben Spencer in Runnymede and Weybridge and Claire Coutinho in East Surrey remained MPs as well.

But the party did also see three new faces - Lincoln Jopp in Spelthorne, Rebecca Paul in Reigate and Greg Stafford in Farnham and Bordon - who have regularly raised issues in the last year, such as the state of health and transport services and the concerns of local businesses.

Between 1974 and last year, the county had 11 MPs, although the shape and names of the constituencies did change slightly at various times.

But in 2023 the number of seats was revised as part of a shake up of the political map by the Boundary Commission for England.

It meant that for the first time at a general election, Surrey had 12 seats.

Eleven of them are wholly in the county and one - Farnham and Bordon - is partly based in Hampshire.

The review also moved places like Virginia Water and Englefield Green into the Windsor constituency in Berkshire.

The area has always thrown up significant politicians, including several chancellors.

But when Labour won the election, it was the first time that the prime minister had come from Surrey - or at least the modern version of the county created in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sir Keir Starmer grew up in Hurst Green, close to Oxted, and has spoken about the importance of his background in helping to form the person he became.

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