Summary

  • General election 2019: As it unfolded across the West Midlands

  1. How Labour's 'red wall' turned bluepublished at 20:17 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    Seats held by Labour for generations across the Midlands and north of England are won by the Tories.

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  2. Our live coverage across the daypublished at 18:59 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    Andy Giddings
    BBC News

    We'll be back with the news, sport, travel and weather from 07:00 on Monday.

  3. Election proved 'there's no such thing as a safe seat'published at 18:52 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    The returning Conservative MP for West Worcestershire, Harriett Baldwin, said the losses Labour suffered last night proved "there is no such thing as a safe seat".

    She added: "There was clearly a choice by a lot of people in a lot of places that have been represented by Labour for a long time for a change of direction."

    Harriett BaldwinImage source, Getty Images

    Speaking about her priorities for her own constituency, she said: "climate change is a big priority".

  4. West Midlands mayor urges PM to deliverpublished at 18:41 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    Andy Street faces an election of his own next year, when people vote again on who should be the West Midlands mayor.

    Andy StreetImage source, Getty Images

    Conservative Mr Street has said Boris Johnson will be judged on whether he can keep his promises.

    And he said the election wasn't just about Brexit, because people voted for the party they thought would deliver on things like jobs and infrastructure.

    Quote Message

    He needs to keep his word that he is going to invest in public services, particularly the police, that comes up time after time, of course the health service, we've just seen a commitment to a brand new hospital in west Birmingham and of course to education."

    Andy Street, West Midlands mayor

  5. Lichfield MP says European leaders will envy Johnsonpublished at 18:18 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    "European leaders like Angela Merkel will be looking at Boris Johnson with envy", the re-elected Conservative MP for Lichfield has said.

    Michael Fabricant is back with a majority of 23,638 and tweeted last night: "Many European leaders govern weak coalitions. After many years, the UK looks likely to have a strong government able to action its agenda - including Brexit."

    Michael FabricantImage source, Getty Images

    He also tweeted: "Boris has done what no Conservative leader has managed since Margaret Thatcher in 1987 - securing a substantial Commons majority."

  6. 'He would have bankrupted the country'published at 18:15 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    Voters in Birmingham Northfield explain what went wrong for Labour.

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  7. Does Labour need a new direction after Corbyn?published at 17:59 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    BBC Politics

    Labour has lost its fourth general election in a row and it will soon have a new leader.

    But will this be enough to get it back into government?

    Jeremy CorbynImage source, Getty Images

    BBC political correspondent Iain Watson looks at the potential leadership contenders, including Birmingham's Jess Phillips - and what they will need to do to reverse the party's fortunes.

  8. 'Jeremy Corbyn has nearly broken our party'published at 17:46 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    Ruth Smeeth, the former Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent North lost her seat to the Conservatives.

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  9. 'It's not all about Brexit'published at 17:30 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    Stuart Anderson, the new Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West, said Brexit wasn't the only issue that came up during campaigning.

    He beat Labour's Eleanor Smith by 1,661 votes last night.

    Eleanor Smith and Stuart Anderson
    Quote Message

    So although this [Brexit] was important... people were still interested in crime, NHS, how we invest in that, how we look at education and how we look at what's important to people's everyday lives."

    Stuart Anderson, Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West

    In the 2016 referendum, 54.4% of people in the constituency voted to leave the EU, lower than some neighbouring areas.

    In Wolverhampton South East, 67.7% of voters backed leave.

  10. Five lessons from the 'social media' electionpublished at 17:16 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    BBC Trending

    There is still a vast amount we simply don't know about how the election campaign played out digitally.

    This includes how much was spent by the main parties on targeted Facebook ads in the final few days; how much was spent advertising on other platforms; and whether foreign influence was behind any of the most controversial activity.

    ScreengrabImage source, Twitter

    Nevertheless, based on a huge amount of collective data and the combined efforts of journalists and analysts across many institutions, we can now make some firm conclusions, in addition to those made already by colleagues at BBC Trending.

    You can read Amol Rajan's full analysis here.

  11. MP hopes to 'move towards a different style of politics'published at 17:00 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    The returning Hereford and Herefordshire South MP Jesse Norman has said he hopes people can move on from the bitterness of the general election campaign and "move towards a different style of politics."

    He said: "This has been a very tough, closely fought election, people tend to do silly things sometimes in the heat of the moment and that's not confined to any political party."

    Jesse NormanImage source, Getty Images

    Mr Norman said that wasn't the case in his constituency, where he thought there had been a good-natured campaign.

    Mark Garnier, the re-elected Conservative MP for Wyre Forest, said: "Boris Johnson has got to heal the wounds that we have over Brexit", adding "if we are a divided country, we're not going to be able to take advantage of the opportunities Brexit has to offer."

  12. Birmingham's red wall largely still standspublished at 16:34 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    While parts of Labour's "red wall" collapsed overnight in the West Midlands, others held firm despite the party's heavy defeat overall.

    In Wolverhampton, two of the three constituencies fell to the Tories, likewise in Stoke-on-Trent.

    The Conservatives also took a seat from Labour in Dudley North and two in West Bromwich.

    Birmingham Northfield became a Conservative seat for the first time in 27 years.

    Graphic

    Despite all of Birmingham's other Labour MPs seeing their majorities cut by varying degrees, their opposition Conservative candidates failed to make major inroads across the city. Rather, other parties benefited (although remain well behind the big two).

    The exception was Yardley, where Vince Garrington took an extra 10 percentage points of the share of the vote, compared with 2017, although the Lib Dems lost votes as well as Labour.

    Grpahic

    In seven of the 10 Birmingham constituencies (including Sutton Coldfield), the Conservatives actually polled fewer votes in 2019, compared with 2017.

    In terms of share of the vote it's a similar story. In five of the 10 seats, the Conservatives lost share, while in others their gains were minimal.

  13. MPs thank voters and party organiserspublished at 16:15 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    It's been a busy election period for candidates and their teams of volunteers, many whom have been pounding the streets to sell their party's message.

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  14. 'Landslide victory': How local press reported electionpublished at 16:00 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    A flavour of how the local newspapers and websites reported the results overnight:

  15. Labour policies 'weren't in the right direction'published at 15:39 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    Birmingham Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood says Labour has got to "understand what went wrong".

    Khalid Mahmood

    He won with a majority of 15,317, which is down by more than 3,000 compared with last time.

    "Basically our policies weren't in the right direction and our campaign perhaps didn't understand what the people are looking for and therefore what [we've] got to do now is to understand what went wrong.

    "I think in a sense the leadership has to change. We have to move forward and look at it and rebuild ourselves up."

  16. MP wants to 'rebuild the Labour Party'published at 15:20 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Yardley, has said she wants to rebuild the party and hasn't ruled out running to be the next leader, after Jeremy Corbyn.

    But she questioned whether she would be the right sort of person and said: "Lots of people will say that they like me, but it isn't enough. I have to have a considerable amount to offer, more than just that people like me."

    Jess Phillips

    Jess Phillips is the third favourite to succeed Jeremy Corbyn with a number of bookmakers and said: "I want to rebuild trust, I want people to think that they are part of our system and feel proud of it."

  17. In the Midlands this really is historicpublished at 14:48 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    An election for people with long memories.

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  18. Labour vote collapses across West Midlandspublished at 14:21 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    Labour loses nine seats in the region including all in Stoke-on-Trent and two in Wolverhampton.

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  19. Failing to change 'the biggest mistake' Labour could makepublished at 14:05 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2019

    The Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East has said there now needs to be "cultural change" in the party.

    Speaking after holding on to his seat with a much-reduced majority of 1,235, Pat McFadden said Labour would be "deceiving itself" if it thought "it could continue in the same direction as it's had in the last few years".

    Pat McFadden

    Speaking about the way the party is run, Mr McFadden said: "On every issue. instead of debating its merits up and down, far too often it's judged as some kind of test of loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn and that's a way of shutting debate and discussion down."

    He added: "To remove Jeremy Corbyn and carry on with Corbynism, if you like, under a new face and voice would probably be the biggest mistake the Labour Party could make right now after these devastating results."