Norman Baker sensationally lost his Lewes seat on a miserable night for the Liberal Democrats.

Conservative Maria Caulfield took the seat with 19,206 votes compared to Mr Baker's 18,123.

The veteran Liberal Democrat immediately announced his retirement from frontline politics and said he would not seek Parliamentary reelection.  

Ray Finch of Ukip was third with  5,427 while Lloyd Russell-Moyle of Labour was fourth with 5000.

Alfie Stirling of Greens was fifth with 2784.

The turnout was  73.1%.

Speaking immediately after the announcement at Lewes Leisure Centre, Ms Caulfield said: "I'm so pleased that the British public has voted for a Conservative government and voted for change to happen.

"I just want to be a good constituency MP and I'm over the moon to be here."

She also paid tribute to Mr Baker and said the constituents she had spoken to were full of praise for the veteran MP.

She added that if people spoke of her in such glowing terms of her in the future them she would be very pleased.

Mr Baker, a veteran of the party, has held the seat since 1997. However, his vote dropped from 26,048 in 2010 to 18,123 this time round.

He is one of a number of high profile Liberal Democrats to have lost their seats this morning. Others include Simon Hughes who lost his  Bermondsey and Old Southwark seat and Vince Cable who lost in Twickenham.

Mr Baker said: "It is a terrible result for the Lib Dems nationally and no reason why Lewes should be exempt from that. It was quite close here in the end compared to some of the others across the country. The party will now have to take stock.

"I don't think the loss was anything to do with what happened here. I think it was a good campaign run by my team down here and the response I got from people was certainly very positive.

"This is about the national picture, this is about fear of the SNP and the fact we lost support as a consequence of the correct and brave decision to enter the coalition to deal with he situation we were in in 2010."