General election 2024: Ballot boxes arrive for Grantham and Bourne constituency as count gets underway at the Meres Leisure Centre in Grantham

The chance for voters to make their voices heard is now over as ballot boxes begin to arrive ready for counting.

The first boxes of ballot papers have arrived from the 124 polling stations across the new Bourne and Grantham constituency, joining the postal votes which people began verifying at 10pm.

Counting will begin by 2am after the verification has been completed.

The count for Bourne and Grantham is taking place at the Meres Leisure Centre in Grantham, where parliamentary candidate hopefuls are expected to gather to hear the result between 3.30am to 4am.

If the numbers between candidates are close a recount may be run to re-check the figures.

Today (Thursday, July 4) concludes six weeks of campaigning by the eight candidates: Gareth Davies (Conservative), Vipul Bechar (Labour), John Vincent (Lib Dem), Anne Gayfer (Green), Mike Rudkin (Reform UK), Alexander Mitchell (Social Democratic Party), Charmaine Morgan (Lincolnshire Independents) and Ian Selby (Independent).

The ballot boxes have also arrived at the Rutland and Stamford count, which is being held at Casterton College.

In the December 2019 election, Mr Davies won the Grantham and Stamford seat which incorporated Bourne, with 66% of the vote, while fellow Tory Alicia Kearns was elected to represent the Melton and Rutland seat with 63% of the vote.

The Conservative Party is defending a strong position in this general election — having held all of Lincolnshire seats after the 2019 election, some of which are seen as being among the ‘safest’ held by the Tories in the whole country.

Reporters are out at counts across the area tonight — with live updates as the results come in from Lincolnshire and Rutland.

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