North East Results Election 2017

Good morning. reflecting

Welcome to a Look North Election results special here on BBC One.

We're also broadcasting live on Facebook.

Well - it's been a disappointing night for the Conservatives

and a better than expected one for Labour.

Two seats have changed hands in the North East and Cumbria.

Over the next 25 minutes, we'll bring you the key results

And I'll be discussing them with representatives

Our coverage, though, begins at Stockton South -

home to the biggest shock of the night regionally.

The Conservatives had a majority of more than 5,000 and had held

But Labour surprised many by taking back control by nearly 900 votes.

This was the moment James Wharton's worst fears were realised.

He always knew it was going to be close but in

A local doctor, he's only been in politics for five weeks.

Now he's the new MP for Stockton South.

I feel really privileged that people of Stockton

South have voted for me to become their Member of Parliament.

I intend to be a hard-working Member of Parliament,

visible throughout the whole constituency and I want to be a

Member of Parliament for every person in Stockton South.

James Wharton actually received more votes

this time than when he won the seat in 2015.

The people of Stockton South have spoken, the people of Teesside have

spoken, indeed the country, I don't know how long

here again but for this evening, this polling day, Stockton South's

Well, the Conservatives managed to overturn a Labour seat

in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland.

says his top priority is ensuring Brexit goes through.

After a night of mainly grim news for the Conservatives, finally

The Tories taking Middlesbrough South at East Cleveland,

People here wanted Brexit delivered, they want

to see us leave the European Union, get the right deal and I'm

delighted they've put their trust in me and I promise I will deliver.

The previous Labour MP said he had irreconcilable differences with

For Tracy Harvey, who did, losing out was just too much.

She left the count without doing interviews.

The Lib Dems came third, losing their deposit.

We were subject to a squeeze where the two other parties

Lots of people had to decide whether to vote

On what's undoubtedly been a very difficult

night for the Conservative Party nationally, Middlesbrough South and

East Cleveland has been a bright spot, taking one of a target seats

One of the Conservative's biggest disappointments of the night came

as they narrowly missed taking the Labour marginal

Labour's Helen Goodman clung on with a reduced majority of 502

after a determined Tory campaign in the constituency that included

a visit by foreign secretary Boris Johnson on Tuesday.

Labour also successfully defended seats elsewhere in County Durham,

as our political correspondent Luke Walton reports.

Helen Goodman's seat, a top Conservative target, and when her

3,000 Labour majority was slashed to just 500, eventually

So did this critic of Jeremy Corbyn acknowledge that he

I wouldn't say that Jeremy has been vindicated by

I think it was Labour values that ran much more deeply in

In neighbouring Sedgefield, a more comfortable 6,000

He too is no fan of Mr Corbyn but said his leader

It was about her and about her mandate to

I think people knew that there was something not quite right here,

considering the same person said on more than one occasion that there

Here, like so many places, a dramatic fall in the Ukip vote.

But also a failure by the Conservatives to

It has not been the night we expected shall I say.

I think there will be some rethinking to be done.

For Labour, the good news kept coming.

City of Durham delivering an increased

12,000 majority on a night when they defied so many

In Darlington, Labour's Jenny Chapman held onto her seat.

It was one of the Conservatives main targets.

She beat the Conservative candidate into second place

and increased her majority in what turned out to be a very

Darlington was a top Conservative target.

Even Labour were gloomy about their prospects.

Both candidates were left making speeches they hadn't prepared for.

I just want to thank everybody who took

part in this election, everybody who voted and many

I guess the exit poll is proving increasingly true here.

We've got such a massive increase in the Conservative vote.

Sadly, the Labour vote also went up by a good amount.

Neither candidate would be interviewed on a night of

For one losing candidate at least, he welcomed the

The number of people who talked to me and said they loved Green

Party policies but on this occasion they had to vote anything but Tory

Five weeks ago when the Conservatives won

the Teesvalley race, seats

like this one looked there for the taking for the Tories but

tonight, Darlington has joined a list of disappointing results for

Richard joins us now from Darlington.

In Workington in West Cumbria, Labour's Sue Hayman held

on to her seat, albeit with a slightly reduced majority.

She put her victory down to a number of factors.

I've only been the MP for two years but I've worked very hard.

People tell me I've achieved plenty in that

time, saving the courts for example, fighting for our health services,

supporting people through the floods.

Also we had a good manifesto and that did come up on the

doorstep, people wanted to talk about health and education for

Labour held on in Hartlepool, with a new MP being elected

to replace Iain Wright who stood down.

Mike Hill was elected with an increased majority for Labour.

The Conservatives came second, and UKIP's share

In the end, a comfortable win in Hartlepool for Labour.

A seat in which Ukip and the Conservatives entertained

So how did Labour poll nearly 22,000 votes,

more than 7,000 ahead of the Conservatives in second place?

It was about normal issues so Brexit and Corbyn were not dominant

The Conservative candidate, more than 14,000 votes, but didn't

Even though he increased the party vote from the

You said you would talk to us, why won't you talk to ask us?

The Ukip's man in third with over 4,000 votes, about 6,500

For the Lib Dems, it was another lost deposit,

Labour's win means Hartlepool hasn't seen Conservative

For them, it wasn't meant to be like this.

Well, with me now to discuss the political picture

here in the North and nationally, Ian Mearns, re-elected MP

for Gateshead, Melanie Hurst for UKIP, Guy Opperman,

also re-elected for the Conservatives in Hexham

and Jonathan Wallace for the Liberal Democrats.

There has been no change. Sadly we lost my good friend and colleague

James Wharton but gained a seat in Middlesbrough South. We would have

loved to one Bishop Auckland but the same stage, I look at the seats and

the numbers are pretty much the same. I was delighted with the

result in Copeland where Trudy Harrison has again been re-elected

after her by-election win but we have not made the games we would

have liked to have made, whether it be in Darlington or elsewhere.

Turnout was good but no landslide, you didn't scoop up those Labour

votes. What was pleasing for me was that allied the way democracy united

us. We had been through a turbulent month with two terrorist attacks and

it was fantastic to see the voter turnout going up in circumstances

where we all join together and got behind democracy and the election

went off without a hitch on the day and that is the best thing that has

happened before. You may be right there. You have pretty much always

been behind Jerry Corbin? Yes and in the second leadership election, I

backed Jeromy because the membership had backed him overwhelmingly and I

believe in the democracy within our party. Therefore there was no need

for that second leadership because he had the backing of the member

ship. You must be very delighted? I don't think it is about Jeremy

Corbyn but the basket he represents. That has had an overwhelming measure

of support from the people of the North East and Cumbria. Our messages

on health and education, on jobs for the future. Is it about that or the

crumbling Ukip thought which has tumbled to massacre in our region? I

wouldn't say the increased majorities we have seen for Labour

MPs in the region has a tremendous amount to do with the crumbling Ukip

thought. We have seen a burgeoning and support the policy basket but we

thought that the increased turnout as well as increased majorities. Tim

Farron didn't even visit the site of the region during the campaign, did

he write off Berwick? Nil. Disappointed that we didn't when it

but the party went through such a hammering two years ago that we are

into a recovery stage and had the election being in three years rather

than now, we would be looking at taking back Berwick. It was 11.2%

down? Yes, two years was too short a time to be able to go through the

recovery we needed to do so. That said, nationally, we have increased

the number of seats but we have got. By four, nationally. Our share of

the vote was down a fraction but we held our ground. Look at the top,

Tim Farron barely hung on to his old constituency. Yes and the fact that

the Ukip thought was going to the Conservatives there was not helping

us but you have to remember that was until 2005, a seat, Conservative

seat and we have held it in three elections. Them did well in the

circumstances but we held it, we won. Ukip, really, what is the point

of Ukip right now? From now on in, Ukip is more relevant than ever

because of the results. That is not what the voters see full stop

Hartlepool, strong support down there initially, 16.5% down.

Sunderland, 14.3, you cannot discount those figures. I appreciate

that our board has gone down. They have been tactical voting. We did

not expect to do well and we didn't do nearly as well as we had hoped

for but the result that we have ended up with for Ukip were quite

positive. They do give Ukip that bans are believed to get back into

the arena. We were maybe Explorer this later.

More results around the region and in Cumbria -

the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, faced a recount

in his Cumbrian seat of Westmorland and Lonsdale.

His majority of almost 9,000 two years ago,

was reduced by the Conservatives, to just under 800.

I dedicate my win tonight to the thousands and

thousands of people of

Lonsdale who I am honoured to represent in Parliament.

I always said from day one 12 years ago, I will

be and will always be Westmorland's man in Westminster, never

I am astonishingly proud tonight to continue to represent you.

It is an absolute dream to do that and an

Also in Cumbria, Copeland has voted to stick with a Conservative MP.

She took the seat in a by-election just under four months ago.

Before that, it had been a safe Labour seat for 80 years.

She was elected with a reduced majority of just over 1,600 votes,

Counters in Copeland could be forgiven for feeling fatigued.

This was the third Parliamentary count

This time round, voters in the once Labour stronghold

reinforce the Conservatives by-election win.

I do hereby declare that Trudy Harrison is duly elected

as member of Parliament for the Copeland constituency.

It was frustrating for me on the 18th of April to learn of

another General Election because I had just spent the last few weeks

Down to Westminster on Monday morning.

The new build will be my number one priority, making sure

If the government needs to step in and that is what I

It was doubt over Labour's nuclear policy which was blamed for the seat

loss as glum resignation once again set in.

The voters unfortunately have been scared into

thinking that their jobs and their prosperity

For the Lib Dems, with 3% of the vote,

I knew what to expect so my expectation was

disappointed with the loss of Nick Clegg.

For the constituency with a red history, the focus now turns

to what the blue future will look like.

In Northumberland, Labour's campaign co-ordinator Ian Lavery

We mentioned Darlington before, this was the night -- not the night

Conservatives have expected? If you lived a couple of years ago and told

the Conservatives they would win in Copeland, they would be first or

second in every single seat in the North, they would have bitten your

hands off but of course expectations were so high going into this

campaign. Their poll ratings were stratospheric and they did have high

hopes of targeting more than just that Middlesbrough South seat in

this part of the world. That may have been part of the problem

because I understand resources were diverted from Stockton South into

Stockton North in the hope they could overturn the 8,000 majority

there. They didn't do it and they lost in Stockton South. About

labour, where does this leave the party? There are candidates here

like Jenny Chapman and Phil Wilson who were declared independence so

they did not want Jeremy Corbyn anywhere near their campaign. I

think all will admit that Labour did have a good campaign with Jeremy

Corbyn. It is his leadership and he got young people to vote in

particular. Look at Newcastle East, City of Durham, high student votes,

a big surge in labour but. It is his authority and not Theresa May's that

has been enhanced today. In Northumberland, Labour's campaign

co-ordinator Ian Lavery increased his support in Wansbeck

and after 30 years as Blyth MP, Ronnie Campbell wins again -

both delighted at Labour's result, The Conservatives gained

as they kept votes too. Anne-Marie Trevelyan in Berwick,

and Guy Opperman in Hexham. It was political

history in the making. For the first time, all four counts

would take place here in Blyth and it was Blyth Valley

who declared first. Ronnie Campbell had

planned to step down. I'm glad I didn't retire

in many ways because I thought I might have had to retire

but I fought that argument and won. Then to Wansbeck and for Labour's

campaign coordinator, it was a new dawn, a new day and

he was feeling good. Six or seven weeks ago,

the party were called out to have a General

Election by a government who basically called it to try and

destroy the Labour Party. It looks very good

nationally tonight and I'm delighted that I've been

elected for the third time. To the Conservatives,

Guy Opperman celebrated his I'm delighted that the people

of Hexham have put their trust in me again and at this

difficult time, I believe it is As Ukip voters turned

away from that party, all four winners welcomed an

increase in support with Ann-Marie Trevelyan holding Berwick

on a promise to see Brexit through. People of all political colours are

vesting their trust in me in large numbers because they wanted to make

sure the Brexit referendum result was respected

and driven through. Sunderland's been the first

to declare in the General Election But last night, Newcastle

Central took the crown. Overall turnout in Sunderland's

three seats was up on 2015, but the Labour stronghold remained

true to the party. 80 sixth form students ran

the ballot boxes in for the count but for the first time since

1992, Sunderland lost the race to be the country's first declarer with

Newcastle Central pipping them to Around ten minutes later,

it was announced that Bridget People here have

continued to see the living standards fall, wages fall

and a real squeeze on local services and it's clear

from the result here tonight in Sunderland

the people want change. Sunderland's overall

turnout rose to 61%. No surprises in the results though,

Labour retained all seats. Julie Elliott for

Sunderland Central and Sharon Hodgson for Washington

and Sunderland West. There was a lot of anger

on the doorstep about Theresa May calling the election when she

had said so many times that she Scrapping universal free school

meals for infants, the winter fuel allowance was met by a lot of anger

amongst constituencies across The rate of increase

for the Conservative vote was substantially more

than the Labour vote and that shows there

is an increased trend towards the

Conservatives and away from Labour What now is like a more unstable and

uncertain future with a hung parliament, something no business

here once? Sadly, Theresa May's Campbell has failed abysmally. She

has brought this about by her own ears and therefore, I think the

campaign we have fought, because we knew that it would be very difficult

for Theresa May and the Conservatives to maintain a single

issue election but a six-week period and of course the health service,

education, tuition fees, jobs and the future. Is this more about the

angry remainders who just wanted to be heard? , it was a very diverse

set of issues on the doorstep and people were genuinely concerned

about what the Conservatives would do with a large majority on things

like jobs and the health service and investment and education. Therefore,

that all came up but I think also, the Conservatives did shoot

themselves in the foot with the dementia attacks. Your reaction on

that? Job numbers have been better than they are before. The National

Health Service has had more money but into it repeatedly under the

Conservatives and the education budget is larger than ever so I

reviewed what he is saying. The voters did not buy that, strong and

stable must be ringing in your ears today? It is not the result we would

have liked to have had but we're still the largest party. When all

the results are in, we will be able to maintain a majority, we will have

to see where we are. What about Theresa May? I am utterly behind the

Prime Minister, getting she has the right person to take us forward.

Utterly? Not without a shadow of a doubt. I have worked for her and she

is a very strong woman and a good woman. Many of your colleagues are

saying she is not up to it. I only can think of one colleague and you

know that as well as I do. You mentioned earlier Ukip, you think

have a spring in their step? I don't believe this election was about

Brexit, it was about domestic issues. People have never been so

hard up, they have never been so worried about job security, food

banks are at record levels. It was about domestic issues and people

feeling lighter in the pocket and having less money to spend on things

they need. That is where the Conservatives gambolled and got it

wrong. Theresa May has now put the whole Brexit process, timescale and

outcome, at risk. That gives Ukip and in road. You don't release have

any influence, it is a return to party politics but no influence from

the Lib Dems? That is what worries me, that the UK is going down that

path, the returning the 2-party politics. That is bad for our region

and in many ways, the region is very much a 1-party state because we are

being squeezed heavily by a Labour Party which, although represents the

majority of people, doesn't represent everybody and we need a

change to the voting system to ensure that minority voices are

heard. There's more analysis

on the BBC News website.