The Liberal Democrat party lost have lost another crucial marginal as Tory Caroline Ansell took the Eastbourne seat ahead of the Stephen Lloyd.

A total of 78,262 constituents hit the polls and Caroline Ansell returned with 20,934 of the votes in a tightly-fought contest.

With Stephen Lloyd himself surpassing the 20,000-mark, the margin was just 733.

The pair were the only two in contention with third place in the polls going to UKIP's Nigel Jones with 6,139.

Ms Ansell insisted she was on stage not knowing who had won, and the Winter Gardens theatre in Eastbourne roared when she was announced as the member of parliament for Eastbourne.

She said her top priority was the local hospital and added: "I've hardly dared to believe even to the very last moment. Seven years of pounding the pavement has paid off. It's incredible and I feel really energised."

The former teacher thanked her family and campaign team and said they were the difference in such a tight race.

Stephen Lloyd admitted the coalition hurt his party, but said it was the best campaign he had ever been involved in.

In 2010, he won his seat by a margin of 3,435, but this year's fight was much tighter.

As he considers his future, he must make a number of redundancies in his team, but first insisted he would take his partner on holiday for two weeks to "just get way from it all".