Plaid Cymru has held on to Ceredigion in the General Election after Ben Lake was re-elected with 15,208 votes, while Liberal Democrat candidate Mark Williams has called time on his political career.

Acting returning officer Eifion Evans announced just after 3.20am that Mr Lake had won.

The count took place in Aberaeron Leisure Centre and Mr Lake thanked everyone gathered there for their support and said he was looking forward to going back to Westminster and repaying the faith and trust people had shown in him.

It’s the second consecutive win for the young MP who took the seat away from Liberal Democrat Mark Williams in 2017.

Mr Williams, who finished third with 6,975 votes, exclusively told the Cambrian News he would not be standing again.

He said: “Ben is a worthy winner and I respect him and everything he’s tried to do in the last two years.

“It was a privilege to have been in Parliament for 12 years and I would have liked to have gone back but politics is a rollercoaster.

“If the last election was the closing chapter in my political life, then this election marks the closure of the book.

“I feel grateful and humbled by the support the people of Ceredigion have given me over the last 20 years fighting elections.”

Conservative candidate Amanda Jenner came second with 8,879 votes.

Labour’s Dinah Mulholland was fourth with 6,317 votes; Gethin James, fifth, with 2,063 votes; and the Green Party’s Chris Simpson was sixth with 663 votes.

Turnout in Ceredigion was 71.34 per cent, down from 75.2 per cent in 2017.

For more coverage from election night, with reaction and interviews from the candidates and returning MP Ben Lake, see next week’s Cambrian News, on sale on Wednesday