Labour Party candidate Patrick Canavan who stepped into the breach at the last minute after former prospective parliamentary candidate Jermaine Atiya-Alla pulled out, was upbeat though conceding the outcome could be close between the Tories and the Lib Dems.

The 57-year-old former trade union official, who lives in Torquay and took early retirement, joined the fray a week before the date of the election was announced.

He said he had enjoyed his first election as a candidate having been an agent in South Bedfordshire in the past.

'The roles are quite different and in practice it is a completely different experience. The public generally were fantastic, kind and polite even if they were not Labour supporters.

'I am happy with the way things went,' he said praising his wife Patricia who had answered loads of telephone calls, his agent Bob Kennedy, of Teignmouth, Bob's wife Mary, and Di Nicholls, of Newton Abbot, both former Teignbridge councillors.