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National
Hannah Graham

Watch shock moment Labour's Laura Pidcock lost North West Durham seat to Conservative Richard Holden

It's a seat that's never had a Conservative MP in its history.

North West Durham has been held by Labour since the seat's re-creation in 1950.

But on Thursday night it fell in a historic victory for the Conservative party and new MP Richard Holden.

With the issue of the EU and Boris Johnson's promise to 'get Brexit done' dominating the election, the leave-voting seat swung firmly to the right.

In 2017, Ms Pidcock won 25,308 votes compared to Conservative candidate Sally-Ann Hart's 16,516 - meaning the Tory candidate overturned a majority of 8,792 votes.

The new Conservative representative singled out the outgoing MP's politics as he reflected on his victory. Ms Pidcock, who was first elected in 2017, was a strong supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and had even been tipped as a potential successor to the Labour leader prior to Thursday night's disaster for Labour.

The candidates stayed straight-faced as the results were read out, but there was a cheer from Conservative onlookers as the result was announced.

Speaking after his victory Mr Holden said: "It is a stunning result here and it is a real rejection of the divisive politics of the Corbynite Labour Party.

"On a personal level, I'm obviously sorry for Laura, and I do feel for her but she represented a branch of the Labour Party that wasn't mainstream, which wasn't what people thought of as traditional Labour and that's what happened tonight.

"This is a rejection of the Labour Party and simultaneous acceptance that Boris Johnson is the right person to lead this country forwards."

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