SIR Robert Syms is confident that he will hold his seat in parliament, despite a national campaign that has ‘not gone particularly well’.

The previous MP and Conservative candidate for Poole told the Daily Echo that the local campaign had gone well, but that his party hadn’t got ‘on the front foot’ throughout the campaign.

He said: “The local campaign has gone pretty well, we’ve got a lot of leaflets out, we’ve had a good team and it went like clockwork.

“The national campaign hasn’t gone particularly well, and I think it was a surprise election and I don’t think we ever got on the front foot over the past five or six weeks.

“The exit poll, which I presume will be fairly accurate, shows that.”

Sir Robert added: “Immigration comes up quite a lot, a whole range of issues that people are concerned about. I’m still confident I should hold the seat, it looks like its splitting three or four ways and we’ve got quite a good Conservative vote, so its fingers crossed at this stage.”

Sky News is reporting that Sir Robert has an 89 per cent chance of retaining his seat in Poole, according to the exit poll.