General election: How events unfolded throughout the night at Braywick Leisure Centre

A long and tense night of waiting at Braywick Leisure Centre ended with jubilation for the Liberal Democrats in Maidenhead and the Conservatives in Windsor.

The leisure centre sports hall was a hive activity as count officials, members of the media, candidates and their supporters arrived in their droves from 10pm onwards.

By this time, the chamber was already filling up, with counters sitting on rows of tables, awaiting the arrival of the ballot boxes.

Following their arrival, it was announced close to 11.30pm that the vote verification process was beginning.

Some of the candidates who arrived earlier in the evening could be seen mingling with their teams in the hall.

The Liberal Democrat teams came out in force at the count.

The party’s Maidenhead candidate Joshua Reynolds was joined by his family including his partner and several Royal Borough councillors, including his campaign manager, Royal Borough council leader Simon Werner.

Supporters were enthusiastically putting in the steps across the tables, overseeing the verification process.

Windsor candidate Julian Tisi was also supported by his wife, borough councillor Amy Tisi, and his team.

After a few hours of verifying the votes, the official count got underway just after 2am and candidates and their teams quickly emptied out from the area near the entrances and gathered around the tables.

Armed with clipboards and pens, they watched on in anticipation as the votes were sorted into the relevant trays showing each candidate’s name.

As the count continued into the early hours, more candidates were seen in the hall, including Maidenhead’s Labour candidate Jo Smith and Conservative candidate Dr Tania Mathias.

Conservative candidate Jack Rankin was also overseeing the process, alongside a full team of campaign supporters and his family.

Results began to pour in across the country – around two thirds of constituencies had confirmed their results by 5am as Labour celebrated victory.

But bleary-eyed hopefuls had a little bit longer to wait at Braywick, as the clock ticked past 6am and residents woke up to check the results.

After 6.30am, the long-awaited results were imminent, and the media were sent into the declaration room to await the candidates.

Loud cheers could be heard from the count chamber as the provisional results were discussed.

Hoards of supporters and teams, some looking happier than others, then filled the declaration room, as the candidates took to the stage and Jack Rankin was announced as the new MP in Windsor and Joshua Reynolds, the new MP for Maidenhead.

Resounding cheers and claps could be heard from both camps, before the new MPs then took centre stage to give their victory speeches.