JEREMY Hunt dubbed this election his “most difficult since 2005” after being returned for a fifth term as South West Surrey’s MP in the early hours of last Friday morning.

The former foreign secretary, watched by his wife, Lucia, and eldest son Jack at The Edge Leisure Centre in Haslemere, beamed as returning officer Tom Horwood read out the declaration at 3.30am – and afterwards expressed his relief the Brexit deadlock can at last be put to bed.

“I’m absolutely over the moon,” he told the Herald. “This has been a tough election. We had a lot of Conservative voters very disaffected by Brexit, and there were a lot of very difficult conversations on the doorsteps.

“But in the end, I think people recognised that in a democracy, you can’t pick and choose which democratic vote you’re going to respect.”

Mr Hunt saw his majority cut from 21,590 in 2017 to just 8,817 as Paul Follows steered the resurgent Lib Dems to their biggest share of the vote (38.7 per cent) since 2005.

But, unfazed by his dwindled buffer which he blames on the paucity of candidates, Mr Hunt instead pointed to the fact his own 53 per cent share fell just three per cent on 2017.

The Tories’ House of Commons majority is beyond debate, however, with Hunt’s party storming to its best result nationally since 1987.

“I think for many people, not just Conservatives, there is a sense of relief that we now have a majority government that can actually make things happen, and the parliamentary gridlock that has become such a feature of the last few years will be behind us,” he added.

Mr Hunt is also in no doubt as to who was the chief architect of the Tories’ success, and gave full credit to his former leadership rival Boris.

He continued: “The blinder that Boris played was that he got a Brexit deal. I was doubtful that was possible before October 31, but he got that deal and I think that is really at the heart of why he’s been successful this evening, because with a deal there, those fears over a no-deal Brexit evaporated.”

So what’s next?

“People voted not just to deliver Brexit, but to actually put Brexit behind us and get on with much-needed domestic reforms, to the social care system and the NHS and so on.

“Locally, we are also on the cusp of really making something happen in the town centre in Farnham, and I hope to work closely with Paul Follows to make that happen.

“He made commitments at the Farnham pollution summit to produce a plan for the town centre by the end of January.

“I want to see those plans.”