The eyes of the world are on Swindon as polls close and the counting of votes is set to get underway.

Media outlets from London, and even overseas, were spotted in Swindon on polling day on Thursday to cover the election campaign.

The Financial Times sent a reporter and photographer to speak to voters at Eastcott Hill polling station.

The FT’s reporter Miles Ellingham said: “We looked at Swindon and thought it would be an interesting demographic when it came to voters and voter ID, and we had some intelligence to suggest that some voters here would be more affected than in other places.”

As it turned out, in a couple of hours outside the polling station at the Friends’ Meeting House, the pair did not see any instances of anyone being turned away because of a lack of the right ID.

The draw of Swindon as an indicator of greater trends in UK politics had Danish TV very nearly getting on the train from London, until an escalation of the war in Ukraine pushed our town off Denmark’s news agenda.

London-based freelancer, Else Kvist, who was working with TV2 Denmark, said: ”We thought Swindon might be interesting as it looks like somewhere where things might change and where Labour might get in.

“We saw Keir Starmer launched the national Labour campaign for Swindon, and we thought it could be an indicator of whether things were changing nationally.

“The UK has been in the news a lot in Denmark recently, with Brexit and everything.”