Labour's Anna McMorrin takes Cardiff North from the Tories

Labour has taken the Cardiff North seat from the Conservatives.

The party's Anna McMorrin polled 26,081 votes with the Tories' Craig Williams on 21,907.

But Tory Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns narrowly held on to his Vale of Glamorgan seat, with party colleague David Davies retaining Monmouth.

In Pontypridd, Owen Smith had more than double the number of votes of Conservative Juliette Ash.

And Labour's Nick Thomas-Symonds had nearly twice as many votes as the Tories' Graham Smith in Torfaen.

Ms McMorrin said Labour fought "a very positive and energetic campaign" in Cardiff North, with lots of people out knocking on doors.

She said it was a combination of Welsh Labour and the message from the UK party that gained the victory.

The new Cardiff North MP said the Conservatives made it into a Brexit election and it is now important the country gets "the best, most sensible deal".

Craig Williams, who lost the seat for the Conservatives, said there should not be a rush to judgement.

In a tweet to thank supporters, he said he was "heartbroken", adding "sorry I let u down".

Jessica Morden beat the Conservatives' Natasha Ashgar by more than 8,000 votes to retain her Newport East seat.

And Chris Evans held Islwyn with 58.8% of the vote, while Gerald Jones held Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney.

In Blaenau Gwent, Nick Smith beat Plaid Cymru with 18,787 votes to 6,880.

Labour's Anna MacMorrin celebrates with Jo Stevens

Paul Flynn retained the Newport West seat, as did Ann Clwyd in Cynon Valley and Wayne David in Caerphilly.

Chris Bryant comfortably retained Rhondda, a seat taken by Plaid leader Leanne Wood in the assembly election, with almost three times as many votes as the Plaid candidate.

Chris Elmore also retained Ogmore, Jo Stevens kept Cardiff Central, Kevin Brennan kept Cardiff West and Stephen Doughty held on to Cardiff South and Penarth, all for Labour.

The Tories had targeted Bridgend, but Madeleine Moon retained the seat for Labour by more than 4,000 votes.

Jo Stevens, who boosted her majority in Cardiff Central for Labour to more than 17,000, said they had "run a very positive campaign".

She said Jeremy Corbyn was "a fantastic man, an honest politician, people warm to him - you've seen bigger turnouts for young people".

'Popular manifesto'

Owen Smith, who last year stood in a Labour leadership contest against Mr Corbyn , said: "I was clearly wrong in feeling that Jeremy wouldn't be able to do this well and I think he's proved me wrong and lots of people wrong and I take my hat off to him."

He said he believed the Labour manifesto had been "incredibly popular".

"People clearly warmed to the radical ideas that were proposed in the manifesto," he added.

"They want an end to austerity - they want to see a government that invests in public services and we were hearing that on the doorsteps."

Cardiff West MP Kevin Brennan dedicated his victory to the late former First Minister Rhodri Morgan, who had launched his campaign.

"One of the reasons we've done so well in Wales and across the country has been the positive manifesto we had, the positive ideas in comparison to a pretty bleak negative vision of a hard Brexit, a laissez-faire, less equal society under the Conservatives," he said.

Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns retains the Vale of Glamorgan seat

Wayne David was in jubilant mood in Caerphilly