AFTER weeks of strategising, leafleting and door knocking, the EU Referendum campaign in Swindon is over.

At the start of the campaign, the popular view was that the Remain camp had a steep mountain to climb if they were to overcome Swindon’s well documented Euroscepticism.

In the end they could not do enough to tip the balance and Leave was victorious by a margin of 9.4 per cent, taking 54.7 per cent of the overall result.

Coun Tim Swinyard (Con - Lydiard and Freshbrook), who led the Vote Leave effort in Swindon, said: "We were expecting around a two percent margin - we thought it was going to be close but we got over double that.

"I think we have a lot to be proud about, we fought a very positive campaign locally.

"Full respect to Remain, I think both campaigns were very respectful towards each other.

"I don't think the attitude locally matched the attitude to some of the campaign nationally.

"We're really happy with the result, we're very pleased, but there is still a long way to go."

Drusilla Summers, a former Conservative candidate at last month's local elections, was a leading campaigner in Swindon throughout the campaign.

Speaking after the result, she said: "It was starting to look a lot closer than we'd hoped.

"To win by the margin we have is amazing, it has blown me away.

"I think this result is a good sign for the rest of the night.

"There is still so much to play for.

"Swindon was a great personal result but now it's all about the national result.

"Even if it doesn't go our way it's still sending a clear message to the EU and our own politicians that we do want more change and we're not going to just take it lying down."

While the Leave campaign in Swindon took on a definite Conservative identity, the Remain camp was notable for its cross-party makeup.

Liberal Democrat Alex Hegenbarth chaired the Swindon branch of the Britain Stronger In campaign.

He said: “We were saying before tonight that we would be really happy with anything over 40 per cent for Remain - to get 45, I’m over the moon.

“Swindon is one of the most Eurosceptic areas in the South West, so the fact that it was this close is a great sign for the rest of the country.

“The fact that our campaign has involved people from lots of different parties and also no party means we were able to bring together lots of different issues.

“It’s not just about the economy, about environmentalism, about workers’ rights, it’s about all of those things – being able to bring all of those issues together has really helped to strengthen our campaign.”