Labour in historic win with town's first female MP

Labour's Julia Buckley won the seat from Daniel Kawczynski who had represented the area for 19 years

Labour have made big wins in Shropshire, taking a seat that had been held by the Conservatives for decades and electing its first ever female Shrewsbury MP.

The party took the town, which had been held by the Tories for 19 years while Telford, a Tory bellwether seat, went to Labour taking 45% of the vote.

Reform UK came in second place squeezing the Tories into third place in Telford.

Helen Morgan retained her North Shropshire seat for the Liberal Democrats while Mark Pritchard narrowly kept his Wrekin seat for the Conservatives by 883 votes.

In Shrewsbury, 68% or 51,763 people voted, down on 71.8% compared to last election.

The newly elected MP for the seat, Julia Buckley, paid tribute to outgoing MP Daniel Kawczynski, while Mr Kawczynski, who had represented the area for 19 years, said despite his loss he was proud of his track record.

Ms Buckley said: "I promise that I will serve with hard work, determination and a single-minded focus on what is best for Shrewsbury and the villages."

"In short, I will get on with the job you have sent me to Westminster to do."

In Telford Labour had achieved a 24% swing from the Conservatives, as Shaun Davies took 18,212 votes, with Reform UK second on 10,110 and the Conservatives in third place on 8,728.

Tory Stuart Anderson was in the minority after winning the South Shropshire seat, beating off a Lib Dem challenge by a much weakened Conservative majority of just 1,624.

Conservative Philip Dunne had held the seat, formerly the Ludlow constituency before boundary changes, but announced before the election he was standing down.