BREAKING news awaited Foreign Secretary and South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt when he arrived at Guildford station last Friday.

Mr Hunt had taken his first journey on the new direct train service from Farnham to Guildford when he was taken aside by a member of his team.

A phone call soon followed, with Mr Hunt taking himself further down the Guildford platform away from reporters and South Western Railway staff.

Almost instantaneously, the news broke that Prime Minister Theresa May will be stepping down as Conservative leader on June 7.

Mr Hunt went on to confirm his bid for leadership at Haslemere Festival.

Departing Farnham station at 9.34am, Mr Hunt spent his first journey on the new half-hourly service in the front of the cab with train driver Phil Cox.

The foreign secretary, along with South Western Railway managing director Andy Mellors and fellow passengers, arrived at platform 6 at Guildford shortly before 10am.

It is something Mr Hunt has campaigned for “for over five years” and believes it is a “great step forward”.

“I’m pleased that it’s finally happened,” he added.

The MP told the Herald it will make Farnham a “much more attractive place for young people if it has good transport links to neighbouring towns and cities”.

Mr Hunt continued: “I’m sure there’ll be some teething problems and obviously there is some concern about the additional congestion around the station. That will bed down and people will say it’s a great thing for Farnham that we’ve got a link to a great city like Guildford.”

And when asked whether he thought the price of an ‘anytime day return’ ticket at almost £12 would put people off using the service, Mr Hunt said: “I think we need to wait and see on that one, but let’s see what the demand is. Obviously the ticket price needs to be at a level people can afford.”

Mr Mellors added the service has been running “really well” with “really positive feedback” from customers.

He confirmed “nearly 98 per cent” of the trains on the new service have been running “within five minutes of their advertised time”.

And although it’s been a “challenging first 21 months of the franchise”, Mr Mellors said they are “really pleased with the work that we’re doing to drive up performance” and are working closely with Network Rail to “deliver the best possible service that we can to our customers”.