Transport secretary Chris Grayling backed Prime Minister Theresa May after he comfortably held his Epsom and Ewell seat with a large majority on a night when 13 of his Conservative colleagues lost theirs.

Mr Grayling MP won a whopping 59.6 per cent of the vote (35,313 ballots cast) to claim a majority of 20,475 in last week’s General Election – down 3,968 from 2015.

Labour, meanwhile, recorded its highest number of seats in the traditionally blue constituency as the party’s candidate, Ed Mayne, a train driver and former councillor on the London Borough of Hounslow, received 14,838 votes on Thursday, June 8 – an increase of 9.5 per cent.

The Liberal Democrats’ Steve Gee won 7,401 votes (12.5 per cent), while the Green party saw a 0.8 per cent decrease as candidate Janice Baker received just 1,714 votes.

Mr Grayling, who has served Epsom and Ewell since 2001, said he was “really pleased” to have been re-elected in an “active and engaged constituency”.

“The local result was pretty good really,” he said.

“Having been re-elected I’m committed to being a hardworking MP and helping people in the community, as I always have done.”

He admitted he was not as happy with the national picture - after the Conservatives lost ground and were forced to form a coalition government just more than a week before Brexit negotiations begin.

Despite the Tories resorting to siding with the anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion rights Democratic Union Party (DUP), Mr Grayling backed Mrs May

“It’s absolutely right for her to stay on,” he told the Epsom Guardian.

“The last thing the country wants is even more political instability.

“But clearly, we have to learn lessons from the campaign

But Mr Grayling refused to be drawn on what he would attribute the Tories’ loss of seats to, and said he “wanted to take the time to think about it”.

Prior to the election Mr Grayling had pledged to protect services at Epsom Hospital, protect the character of the constituency and secure investment for local schools.