Conservative's former Mayor says "DO NOT VOTE Tory in Shenfield today"

In a shock tweet, last year's Tory Mayor has told Shenfield voters to "Vote for someone other than the conservative candidate" at the Shenfield by-election this morning.

Mrs Joan Holmes, former town centre councillor, has made the dramatic move, she says, in response to the fact that her colleague will be sacked for "speaking his mind".

Polls are open until until 10pm tonight and the Lib Dem candidate, Liz Cohen, is in a neck-and-neck race with the Tory candidate with the other parties clearly out of the race and over 500 votes behind.