Antony Higginbotham made history in 2019 by becoming Burnley’s first Conservative MP in more than 100 years.
We catch up with him to find out his thoughts ahead of this morning’s General Election result as he reflects on the past five years as the town’s MP:
We catch up with him to find out his thoughts ahead of this morning’s General Election result as he reflects on the past five years as the town’s MP:
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00:00Well, the exit poll nationally was obviously a disappointment.
00:04It's not the result I would have wanted for the country,
00:08or for the many hard-working colleagues that appear to be on track to lose their seats.
00:16Because I know how hard they've worked.
00:18But locally, I think the exit poll...
00:22I think the exit poll for Burnley is a safe Labour win.
00:25I'm not sure it's that safe more than you'd expect it to be.
00:28This is a seat that has been Labour for 101 of the last 110 years,
00:33so there should be a decisive swing to them.
00:36And that's not what I'm seeing as I'm walking round the county hall tonight.
00:40So I'm still very much hoping Burnley books the trend.
00:43We've got a couple of hours left here.
00:44I mean, it has been the biggest honour of my life to be the member of parliament for the place I call home.
00:52And it's fair to say the last four and a half years have been anything but easy.
00:57I never expected to deal with a global pandemic, an energy crisis or some war return in Europe.
01:04But I think residents can see that despite those challenging headwinds,
01:09my focus has always been Burnley and Paddy and our villages.
01:14And trying to put the western suburb to one side and deliver things for local people.
01:19So that's what I look back on the last four years.
01:23We've done important local work at the same time that we've had to deal with some pretty big challenges.
01:31Anything else you want to add?
01:34Not yet.
01:35Can I take a picture of you?
01:37Of course you can.