Conservatives oust Labour in Telford

The Conservatives have claimed the Telford seat to complete a clean sweep of Shropshire constituencies.

Lucy Allan's victory, with a majority of 730, marks the first time Labour have lost in Telford since the seat was created in 1997.

Labour's David Wright had seen his majority slip in recent years since first taking office in 2001.

The Conservatives held on to their other four seats in Shropshire, all with larger majorities than in 2010.

Defence minister Philip Dunne almost doubled his majority in Ludlow to 18,929.

Mark Pritchard in The Wrekin, Owen Paterson in North Shropshire, and Daniel Kawczynski in Shrewsbury & Atcham also saw their majorities rise.

'Huge privilege'

Speaking after the result in Telford, Ms Allan said she would put the constituency before party interests.

"I'll stand up for what's right and stand up for the people who put me here," she said.

"I'm incredibly proud of what we've achieved in Telford and to the people of Telford who have been so welcoming and adopted me with open arms."

Mr Wright said it had been a "huge privilege" to represent Telford for the past 14 years.

"In life you win some and you lose some. I say congratulations to Lucy, you fought very hard over the last two years and I hope you're going to represent us well in Parliament," he said.

"A new chapter in my life starts and I'm looking forward to it very, very much."

Mark Elliott, BBC Radio Shropshire

Early exit polls suggested David Wright had this by a really clear margin but gradually as the night progressed it seemed to be turning the Conservatives' way.

There were a lot of rumblings from the Conservative faithful of not enough support from the central party. One said Lucy Allan had been "left hung out to dry", with no heavy hitters, let alone David Cameron himself, visiting the seat.

Ms Allan seemed stunned in the end and the feeling was that she had done this on her own.

She moved into the area from London with the aim of becoming an MP and has now become Shropshire's first female representative in Westminster in 90 years.