THE new Thirsk & Malton Member of Parliament Kevin Hollinrake, who was elected yesterday, has warned that "everything depends" on a good Brexit deal.

Mr Hollinrake made the remarks as the candidates gave their speeches after the results had been read out at around 5am on Friday morning.

The speeches also saw Labour candidate Alan Avery issue a stark warning to Mr Hollinrake on his responsibility to the area when it comes to fracking, and UKIP candidate Toby Horton suggest his political party might be finished.

Mr Hollinrake of the Conservative party secured 33,572 votes out of a total 56,025, nearly 60 per cent of the vote and a majority of 19,001.

Mr Avery was second with 14,571 - an increase on the 2015 election.

Di Keal of the Liberal Democrats got 3,859 votes, Mr Horton got 1,532, Martin Brampton of the Greens got 1,100, John Clark of the Liberal party got 753 and Independent candidate Philip Tate got 542.

Mr Hollinrake said that Brexit was the key focus of the election, adding: "I fear this evening the result is not as clear as we anticipated perhaps, when we called this election.

"That will add more complexity, more uncertainty in the minds of many businesses and that cannot be good. So it's hugely important now that we do move forward with the decision to leave the European Union, but we do it as quickly as possible and strike the best deal as possible.

"That has to be our priority - everything depends on it."

He added that though all the candidates had their differences, there was also a lot of commonality in their objectives.

Mr Avery said he disagreed Brexit was the key issue of the election. "In my experience it never showed. It never showed at the hustings, it never showed on the doorstep.

"The main concerns of people in this constituency were fracking, and austerity.

"You were the only person who stood who wanted fracking in this constituency, the other six of us were against it. And you bear a grave responsibility, if anything were to go wrong."

Toby Horton, the UKIP candidate, hinted that the poor showing by his party might mean it is over. "UKIP may be drawing to a close, we don't know. But we've made our mark."

Di Keal, the Liberal Democrat, said: "I don't share Toby's enthusiasm for a smooth Brexit I'm afraid. I think everything's been thrown up in the air, and there could be some big changes coming along the way."