Ascot now has two MPs after the general election last week. Boundary changes mean that north Ascot – the parts covered by Bracknell Forest Council – are part of the Maidenhead constituency whose MP is now Liberal Democrat Joshua Reynolds.

The south part of Ascot is still in the Windsor constituency. These are the parts that fall into the Ascot and Sunningdale ward of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

Windsor stayed Tory, but its residents also have a new MP in Jack Rankin after their last MP, Adam Afriyie stood down.

Joshua Reynolds is just 25 years old and apart from time spent away studying business and management studies at Cardiff University says he has lived in Maidenhead all his life. He grew up on Courthouse Road in Maidenhead and went to Furze Platt Senior School.

In 2019 he was elected as a Liberal Democrat councillor at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for the Furze Platt ward. After being re-elected in 2023 – as control of the borough changed hands – he took charge of parks, leisure centres, libraries and tourism in the borough.

It’s not the first time he’s stood for MP either. He stood against Maidenhead’s then-Conservative MP Theresa May in 2019 and although he didn’t win, he came second and increased the Liberal Democrats’ share of the vote.

Mr Reynold’s background suggests he has a strong interest and some expertise in local businesses and high streets. Aside from being a supermarket manager, he wrote his university dissertation on how to revitalise high streets.

But his time as councillor hasn’t been without controversy. As the councillor in charge of leisure he held responsibility the council’s decision to backtrack on a plan to hand over land in Braywick Park to Maidenhead United Football Club for a new stadium.

Jack Rankin – like Joshue Reynolds – has also been a member of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead’s leading cabinet committee.

He spent a term as councillor between 2015 and 2019, and was also responsible for economic development, property and communications.

Also like Reynolds, he’s run for parliament before. He stood once in 2017 for Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester where he grew up. He stood again in 2019 for Warwick and Leamington in the West Midlands, where he previously studied mathematics and physics at university.

Mr Rankin lives in the Ascot and Sunningdale constituency. While in Windsor and Maidenhead, he ran the Vote Leave campaign in the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.