As it happened: Labour Party makes six Notts gains in seismic landslide election victory

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The Labour Party has returned a staggering victory in the 2024 General election, returning more than 410 seats, and gaining six seats in Nottinghamshire.

The Conservative Party, meanwhile, fell to its worst-ever election result at about 120 seats – losing power and control of the Government for the first time in 14 years.

It puts Sir Keir Starmer into Downing Street as the new Prime Minister, with this to be confirmed throughout today (July 5).

See how the night unfolded on our live blog below.

Key points:

  • Mansfield, Rushcliffe, Gedling, Broxtowe, Sherwood Forest, and Bassetlaw have all been gained by Labour, and the party has comfortably held all three Nottingham seats.
  • The Conservatives have held Newark with Robert Jenrick and Lee Anderson has won Ashfield for Reform UK.
  • Rishi Sunak conceded overall defeat for the Conservatives just before 5am, saying he has called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him.

9:15 All Nottinghamshire constituency results in full as Conservatives left with one MP

The Conservative Party has been left with just one Nottinghamshire MP after suffering a thumping defeat both locally and nationally.

With leader Sir Keir Starmer now at the helm, Labour successfully ousted Ben Bradley in Mansfield, Brendan Clarke-Smith in Bassetlaw, Sir Mark Spencer in Sherwood Forest, Darren Henry in Broxtowe and Ruth Edwards in Rushcliffe.

It was a historic night in some constituencies, with Rushcliffe turning red for the first time in 54 years.

Their strong majorities in 2019 were left in tatters after disenfranchised voters took to the polls on July 4, and the Conservative vote was left fragmented.

Only the Conservative Party’s Robert Jenrick kept his seat in Newark, albeit with a vastly reduced majority.

Read the full story here.

05:50 Here’s a look at what the political landscape looks like in Notts – with a before and after map of how the election has affected the area.

05:21 That’s the last result in for Nottinghamshire – completing a picture that shows the city and county has gone from having six Conservative seats last night to just one this morning. Here’s a summary of all 11 Notts constituency results.

Nottingham North & Kim: LABOUR HOLD  
Nottingham South: LABOUR HOLD 
Nottingham East: LABOUR HOLD 
Gedling: LABOUR GAIN 
Broxtowe: LABOUR GAIN 
Rushcliffe: LABOUR GAIN  
Sherwood Forest: LABOUR GAIN 
Mansfield: LABOUR GAIN
Ashfield: REFORM GAIN 
Newark: CONSERVATIVE HOLD 
Bassetlaw: LABOUR GAIN 

05:03 Labour have gained another Nottinghamshire seat – and it’s that of Conservative minister Mark Spencer in Sherwood Forest. Michelle Welsh has won the seat with 18,841 votes.

04:52 Local Democracy Reporter Lauren Monaghan has filed her report on the collapse of the Conservative fortress of Rushcliffe to Labour. 

New Labour MP James Naish – the party’s first MP in Rushcliffe since 1969 – says “I’m really pleased for the people of Rushcliffe that we’ve decided to make that change and now hopefully a Labour government can deliver on the change that people have been looking for.”

Conservative Ruth Edwards, who came second, said: “You’ve put your heart and soul into it… It’s a brutal, brutal game.

“I think the overriding factor has been the division in the party at a national level.

“Of course people want a united party to run the country and I don’t think we have presented them with that.”

04:45 Rishi Sunak, who has just defended his own seat of Richmond in Yorkshire, has just used his speech at the count to concede defeat in the election overall. He’s called Sir Keir Starmer, to congratulate him, he says, effectively confirming Britain now has a Labour government. 

04:43 While we were bringing you those results Bassetlaw also declared – Labour’s Jo White has gained the seat from Conservative Brendan Clarke-Smith.

04:28 Full results in Mansfield show Ben Bradley appears to have lost significant support to Reform candidate Matt Warnes, who was third with 9,385 votes. New Labour MP Steve Yemm’s majority is just under 4,000 – so it was close in the end – to an extent.

Mansfield full results;

Steve Yemm (Lab): 16,048

Ben Bradley (Con): 12,563

Matt Warnes (Ref): 9,385

Philip Shields (Grn): 1,326

Michael Wyatt (Lib Dem): 799

Peter Dean (SLB): 423

Wesley Milligan (Ind): 335

Karen Seymour (TUSC): 123

Zen Bilas (Ind): 85

04:26 Conservative Ben Bradley, who lost the race to become East Mids Mayor in May, has now lost his seat in Mansfield. His remaining job is that of Notts County Council leader. Labour’s Steve Yemm has been elected as Mansfield’s MP.

04:25: BREAKING: STEVE YEMM WINS LABOUR GAIN IN MANSFIELD

04:04 BREAKING: MICHAEL PAYNE WINS LABOUR GAIN IN GEDLING

03.57 BREAKING: ROBERT JENRICK HOLDS NEWARK FOR THE CONSERVATIVES

03:52 BREAKING: NADIA WHITTOME HOLDS NOTTINGHAM EAST FOR LABOUR

Full results;

Nadia Whittome (Lab): 19,494

Rosemary Palmer (Grn): 4,332

Johno Lee (Con): 3,925

Debbie Stephens (Ref): 3,587

Issan Ul-Haque Ghazni (Workers Party): 2,465

Anita Prabharkar (Lib Dem): 1,741

Naveed Rashid (Ind): 494

Ali Khan (Ind): 372

03:47 BREAKING: ALEX NORRIS HOLDS NOTTINGHAM NORTH AND KIMBERLEY FOR LABOUR

Full results;

Alex Norris (Lab): 16480

Golam Kadiri (Ref): 7,053

Caroline Henry (Con): 6,786

Sam Harvey (Grn): 3,351

David Schmitz (Lib Dem): 1,336

03:33 BREAKING: LILIAN GREENWOOD HOLDS NOTTINGHAM SOUTH FOR LABOUR

The full result for safe Labour seat of Nottingham South is as expected. The declaration at Nottingham Tennis Centre, where all three Nottingham city constituency votes are being counted, returned the following:

Lilan Greenwood (Lab): 15,579

Zarmeena Quraishi (Con): 5,285

Mykel Hedge (Ref): 4,936

Cath Sutherland (Grn): 2,923

Christina Morgan-Danvers (Lib Dem): 2,059

Paras Ghazni (Workers’ Party): 1,496

Shaghofta Akhtar (Ind): 449

Mohammed Sayeed (Ind): 152

03:20 BREAKING: JULIET CAMPBELL BEATS DARREN HENRY TO SECURE LABOUR VICTORY IN BROXTOWE

Labour’s Juliet Campbell has secured victory in Broxtowe by beating former Conservative MP Darren Henry.

Juliet Campbell MP

The Labour candidate overturned a majority of nearly five thousand to win back the seat, recording 19,561 votes.

Mr Henry, who secured the seat in 2019 from Anna Soubry, finished in second place with 11,158 votes. Reform UK’s Joseph Oakley finished in their with 8,402 votes.

Broxtowe has voted alongside the winning party in every election since 1983, and the exit poll suggests this trend will be repeated again following Ms Campbell’s victory.

Juliet Campbell (Lab): 19,561

James Collis (Lib Dem): 3,807

Dr John Doddy (Ind): 1,034

Darren Henry (Con): 11,158

Teresa Needham (Green): 3,488

Joseph Oakley (Reform UK): 8,402

Maqsood Syed (Workers Party of Britain): 388

03:17: FULL ASHFIELD ROUND-UP AS LEE ANDERSON RETAINS SEAT IN FIRST-EVER REFORM UK ELECTION WIN. 

Lee Anderson MP giving his acceptance speech after winning in Ashfield for Reform UK.

Lee Anderson has been re-elected as Ashfield MP after defecting from Conservative to Reform.

It’s the first time Reform UK has ever had an elected MP and comes after the former Tory beat Labour’s Rhea Keehn into second.

Ashfield Independent candidate Cllr Jason Zadrozny, who is also leader of Ashfield District Council, finished in third place.

Turnout was 58 per cent, the lowest in the constituency since 2005.

Mr Anderson said he wants his “country back” after he was declared the winner, and promised Ashfield would play a part in that.

FULL STORY

03:14 ‘It looks like people have put their trust in change’, says Labour’s Michael Payne as he waits for the result in Gedling.

He was welcomed to the count at Carlton Forum Leisure Centre with cheers a short while ago and spoke to our reporter Sam Jones about the exit poll – which gives him an almost 100% chance of beating Conservative Tom Randall. 

02:57: Robert Palmer (Ref) who’s standing in Newark says even though he’s a ‘paper candidate’, their campaign has been so successful that it’s taken the seat to a ‘knife’s edge’ between Labour and the Tories. The exit poll suggests a narrow victory for Conservative Robert Jenrick, but time will tell on whether that happens. Here’s what Mr Palmer said to our reporter Jack Simms. 

02:32 BREAKING: LABOUR GAIN TORY STRONGHOLD OF RUSHCLIFFE

The Labour Party has gained the Tory stronghold of Rushcliffe after Bassetlaw District Council leader James Naish defeated Ruth Edwards (Con) by more than seven thousand votes.

The Conservatives have held the seat for 97 out of the last 106 years, including until 2019 by Lord Ken Clarke – a former Secretary of State during the Thatcher and Major Governments.

Staggering result…

Full results below, with more to follow later.

02:21 BREAKING: LEE ANDERSON ELECTED AS REFORM UK MP FOR ASHFIELD

Lee Anderson has been re-elected as Ashfield’s MP after beating off Labour’s Rhea Keehn. It’s Reform UK’s first victory of the night and sees Mr Anderson return as the area’s MP having previously won it for the Conservatives in 2019.

In his victory speech, Mr Anderson said: “The people of Ashfield have backed me again as the Reform candidate. I said a few weeks back that there’s going to be a reckoning on election night in Ashfield – which is the capital of common sense.

“This wonderful place which I call my home is going to have a massive say in how this country is shaped in the future. I want my country back and Ashfield can play their part in that.”

Mr Anderson won with 17,062 votes, ahead of Rhea Keehn (Lab) on 11,553. Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind) finished in third with 6,276 votes, while the Conservatives – represented by Debbie Soloman – dropped to fourth with 3,271 votes. Alexander Coates (Grn) got 1,100 votes, with Lib Dem Daniel Holmes in last place on 619 votes.

Lee Anderson MP giving his acceptance speech after winning in Ashfield for Reform UK.

02:13 We’re hearing a provisional result for Rushcliffe could come within the next 10 minutes. An actual result could then arrive not long afterwards, if it’s not contested by the political parties. Exit poll suggests this may be Lab gain from Con. Huge, if true…

02:11 Labour candidate for Ashfield Rhea Keehn says it would be disappointing if the district stays in Reform hands despite Labour’s success.

She said: “There’s definitely a concern that the politics of hate and division are on the rise.

“My team have done a phenomenal job against the rise of Reform and the far right.”

Rhea Keehn, Labour’s candidate for Ashfield.

02:07 Ruth Edwards (Con), the most recent Tory MP for Rushcliffe, has reflected on a difficult night for her party – as well as what she thinks they have done well in the area over the past five years. Rushcliffe has been a Conservative stronghold for more than five decades – but the exit polls are predicting it could fall to Labour’s James Naish this time around.

01:40 Lee Anderson has arrived at the Ashfield count with the exit poll predicting he will retain his seat – but this time for Reform UK, rather than the Conservatives.

01:38 Let’s look at the city for a second, shall we? Labour have called Nottingham a stronghold for decades – both in local and national politics. They have held all three seats for years – and comfortably won all three in 2019 with sizeable majorities. We saved all three City constituencies for last in our constituency profiles – and they’re below, with online links to the articles we wrote, too.

Nottingham East:

Online story: Nottingham East constituency profile. 

Nottingham North and Kimberley: 

Online story: Nottingham North and Kimberley constituency profile.

Nottingham South: 

Online story: Nottingham South constituency profile

01:22 We’re also now at the Nottingham Tennis Centre where counts for the Nottingham East, the Nottingham North and Kimberley, and Nottingham South constituencies are being counted. They’re expected to announce them within the next few hours.

01:18 Outside of Notts for a second, and former deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire, Bulwell’s Emma Foody (Lab) – who deputised for Paddy Tipping (Lab), has been elected as Labour MP for Cramlington and Killingworth in the North East. Random…

01:14 David Watts (Lib Dem), who’s standing in Newark, tells us it’s been a “really positive” campaign though he doesn’t expect to win the seat. However, he believes his party has made a “big impact” in the town and nationally, too.

01:10 While we’re on the topic of Mansfield, Joe and our video journalist Sam Jones went there as part of our series of election constituency pieces. There we spoke to candidates in the seat – which fell in 2017 to the Conservatives and was dubbed the ‘first blue brick in the Red Wall. However, as we saw earlier, it’s too close to call on who’s going to claim victory there. Here’s what candidates told us when we spoke to them last month.

01:06 Local Democracy Reporter Joe Locker, who’s at Mansfield, has confirmed turnout there was 55%, another place significantly down from 2019 when turnout was just below 64%. That equates to 41,206 votes from a total electorate of 74,535.

01:02 Our reporter Sam Jones has confirmed voter turnout in Gedling was 63.5%, which is a significant drop from the 70% figure in 2019. Overall, 48,898 votes were cast – including 12,638 postal votes.

01:00 Here’s an update from our reporter Jack Simms who’s out at the count in Newark tonight about what’s going on there.

00:51 We’ve also got turnout figures for Newark coming in now. Overall – 54,657 votes cast – which is a turnout of 67.25%. That’s down by five full percentage points from the 72.2% figure in 2019.

00:44 Turnout figures for Rushcliffe confirmed – with fewer votes in the constituency compared with 2019 – but still higher than Ashfield.

0:37 Mansfield’s Conservative candidate Ben Bradley has said he believes his seat is “on a knife edge” as the exit poll predicts the district as ‘too close to call’. He’s told us he believes there are several things Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “could have done better” as he accepts Reform UK have eaten up a significant amount of the Conservative vote share nationally.

0:27 Turnout figures confirmed for Ashfield, showing a four per cent drop compared with 2019. How could this play in such a hotly-contested seat?

0:25 Below we hear from Richard Mallender (Green), who is standing in the Rushcliffe constituency. Here he talks about the issues he hopes the winning candidate will address. The exit poll suggests this could be a Labour gain in the Conservative stronghold.

00:22 We’re hearing verification is nearly finished in Ashfield – about two hours earlier than expected. That could bring the expected 4.30am result announcement forward slightly. Voter turnout figures are expected shortly there.

00:20 Hello all – News Editor Andrew Topping here, taking over the blog from Editor Chris Breese for a while. We’ve got loads more coming through from reporters at vote counts across the county – so bear with me, I’m about to go and boil the kettle and I’ll bring some more updates to you.

00:03 Welcome to Friday. Today there will be a Government formed, after a long General Election campaign which is now pointing towards a Labour landslide victory if the exit polls are to be believed – and their typical margin of error is very small.

In Nottinghamshire another seat to watch is Ashfield. Those same exit polls suggest ‘too close to call’ here – and former Tory Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson is standing for Reform here having been kicked out of the Conservative Party. He’s part of what’s considered a three-horse race with Rhea Keehn (Lab) and Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind) – who leads the local district council and the Ashfield Independents, who have been a local election-winning machine in recent years.

Our full report and candidate interviews is here. And our video report is below.

23:47 If the exit polls are right, one of the biggest scalps for Labour will be the Conservative stronghold of Rushcliffe. This south Nottinghamshire constituency has been blue since 1969, and before 2019 was the seat of former Tory Chancellor Ken Clarke. He stood down at that election, and Ruth Edwards took up and won the Conservative cause there in his place. The Tory majority has been gradually shrinking there since 2010 though, and now exit poll predictions suggest James Naish is going to finally roll it over for Labour.

Read our profile and candidates interviews here, and our video report is below.

23:40 Reporter Sam Jones at the count in Gedling, which is at Carlton Forum Leisure Centre. A result is now expected here at 5am.

Gedling is predicted to back to red from blue tonight.

See our video profile of the area and the candidates below.

23:23 More count progress in Rushcliffe, where Conservative Ruth Edwards is trying to defend the seat against Labour’s James Naish, and Gedling where Tory Tom Randall has a similar fight on against Michael Payne.

23:05 Counting and verification under way at two of our most intriguing areas – Newark – where Conservative Robert Jenrick is facing a strong challenge from Labour’s Saj Ahmad – and the REF – LAB – IND battle in Ashfield.

22.48 We can now bring you exit poll prediction– by each Nottinghamshire constituency. If accurate (and it normally has only a very small margin of error) then the Conservatives have likely lost five seats in Notts – with two others too close for poll to make an overall prediction considered worthwhile.

Constituency  Exit Poll Prediction
Nottingham North & Kim (Currently LAB) Labour Hold
Nottingham South (LAB) Labour Hold
Nottingham East (LAB) Labour Hold
Gedling (CON) Labour Gain
Broxtowe (CON) Labour Gain
Rushcliffe (CON) Labour Gain
Sherwood Forest (CON) Labour Gain
Mansfield (CON) Labour Gain
Ashfield (CON 2019 – REF MP) Too close to call
Newark (CON) Conservative Hold
Bassetlaw (CON) Too close to call 

22:27 More ballot boxes are being brought in in Ashfield. The count here is at Kirkby Leisure Centre.

22:20 In Ashfield counting of postal votes – in first since they were sent ahead of polling day, is under way. Local Democracy Reporter Jamie Waller is at this count, where Lee Anderson is trying to win an historic seat for Reform having previously been thrown out of the Conservative Party. But Rhea Keehn (Lab) and Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind) make this seat very much a three-horse race.

22:15 With the exit poll in, the time for predictions is over and now attention turns to the confirmation of individual results. Counting of votes following a General Election works like this;

  • 10pm: Sealed ballot boxes full of votes are taken from polling stations to counting centres across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. They are usually leisure or community centres in or close to each of the 11 constituencues.
  • From around 10.15pm: An army of council staff starts to verify and then count the votes to declare a winner and therefore a Member of Parliament for each area.
  • The time a constituency ‘declares’ – or delivers an official result varies. Here are the times we expect each Notts constituency to deliver a result through tonight;
Constituency Estimated Declaration Time
Nottingham North 3.30am
Nottingham South 2.30am
Nottingham East 2.30am
Gedling 5am
Broxtowe 5am
Rushcliffe 3am to 4am
Sherwood Forest 4am
Mansfield 3am
Ashfield 4.30am
Newark 3am
Bassetlaw 4am

 

22:06 Our local democracy reporter Joe Locker is in Mansfield, where Conservative Ben Bradley, who is trying to defend the seat, reacted by saying ‘it’s on a knife edge’ in response to what the poll shows about Mansfield.

22:04 The exit poll, essentially a survey of voters from across the country, conducted after they have cast their ballots, is always published at 10pm when polls close. It predicts a shuddering victory for Labour, huge losses for the Conservatives and around 13 seats in Parliament for Reform. It’s full prediction is as follows;

LAB: 410
CON: 131
LD: 61
SNP: 10
REF: 13
GREEN: 2

22:00 BREAKING: National exit poll predicts a Labour landslide with a 170 seat majority.

21.55 Evening. Here we go then. Updates from Editor Chris Breese and News Editor Andrew Topping as results come in from across the city and county. First we have the closure of polls at 10pm, followed immediately by the national exit poll, which predicts the overall result – usually with a very small margin of error.

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