‘A toddler could do better’: how Lib Dems won over Tory

The town had been a Tory seat since 1906 and more than 20 constituencies have been seized in the region

With bunting fluttering and thousands of brightly blazered rowing enthusiasts lining the river for the Royal regatta, Henley-on-Thames looked every inch the Tory stronghold it has been for well over a century.

But in the small hours of Friday morning its Conservative MP had fallen to a heavy defeat at the hands of a Liberal Democrat – the first time the former seat of Michael Heseltine and Boris Johnson had slipped from the party since 1906.