General Election 2024 Lancashire: All the results and reaction as Labour wins in landslide

A bundle recount is taking place to confirm the result here in Clitheroe,

Newly-elected Labour MP Paul Foster said said he was overjoyed and shattered after his election win.

Speaking moments after the result was announced, he said he felt he won because Britain wants change. He also admitted there is a lot of work to do and dissatisfaction.

When asked if his win was narrower than expected, he said Labour always expected the Reform UK protest vote to do well - but his campaign was positive and he was pleased with the result.

He said it was “bittersweet” that he would leave South Ribble council as leader after five years in the top job - with 17 years under his belt as a councillor - but he believes he now has the knowledge and experience to head to Westminster and "improve matters across the board". Defeated Tory candidate - and the South Ribble MP since December 2019 - Katherine Fletcher said she was "absolutely cream-crackered" and it "wasn't to be tonight". But she added she was proud of her team's work after the unsuccessful campaign.

When asked why her party had done so badly, she said they needed to regroup, stop looking outwards and need "more diverse voices".

"Ultimately, make sure that people who come to politics - like me who want a Northern Powerhouse - that we carry on banging that drum in whatever way.

"We've needed one for decades, it solves a lot of the problems of the United Kingdom." She added that she would miss the privilege of helping people and the buzz and endorphin rush that comes with it,” she said.

A result is expected soon in the Blackpool North and Fleetwood seat in the General Election.

The provisional results are in and the candidates have been called to the stage.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, after winning a seat in the House of Commons for the first time, said he wants to “fill” a “massive gap on the centre-right of British politics”.

He said: “It’s not just disappointment with the Conservative party, there is a massive gap on the centre-right of British politics and my job is to fill it, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

“But it’s not just what we do in Parliament as a national party that matters, it’s what we do out round the country.

“Getting 5,000 people in that room in Birmingham last week, the energy, the optimism, the enthusiasm, the belief that Westminster is just completely out of touch with ordinary people, says to me that my plan is to build a mass national movement over the course of the next few years, and hopefully, it will be big enough to challenge the general election properly in 2029.”

Reporter Bill Jacobs reporting live at the Blackburn with Darwen count says the vote is tight.

There's literally nothing in this. The Conservatives and Labour are so close but, undoubtedly, whatever the result, Reform has done huge damage to Nigel Evans' hopes

The Lancaster and Wyre declarations are any time and the Morecambe and Lunesdale declarations are expected to be declared at around 4am.

Still awaiting a result here in Pendle and Clitheroe where the count started quite late. Result expected around 4am. No sign of Tory MP Andrew Stephenson or Labour challenger Jonathan Hinder yet.

Labour’s Paul Foster has won the vote to become the next South Ribble MP.

The seat being defended by the outgoing Conservative MP Katherine Fletcher.

The Tories have retained the Fylde seat in the 2024 General election by just 514 votes.

Former Police and Crime Commissioner Andrew Snowden took the win with 15,917 votes.

Turn out was recorded as 62.39%.

Final results:

Anne Aitken - Independent - 4,513

Mark Jewel - Lib Dem - 2,120

Tom Calver - Labour - 15,356

Cheryl Morris - Alliance for democracy and Freedom - 199

Andrew Snowden - Conservative - 15,917

Brenden Wilkinson - Green - 1,560

Brook Wimbury - Reform UK - 8,295

Maya Ellis, who in the next hour might become the Ribble Valley's first ever Labour MP, has arrived in Clitheroe at the count.

If she overturns an 18,500 Tory majority it will mark a seismic win for her party.

The wait is nearly over as it has just been announced that the final results for the Preston vote count are around 30 minutes away.

Candidates and agents nervously await the official final announcement.

Nigel Evans, who has served the borough for 32 years, looks jaded as he arrives at the Clitheroe count.

With Labour now looking to be pulling away, he is overheard saying 'c'est la vie' (that's life).

Whatever you think of him, 32 years as an MP has been an incredible stint.

A crowd has gathered in the offices of Camden Council to hear the result in Holborn and St Pancras, where Sir Keir Starmer is seeking re-election.

Count staff and party activists have lined three floors of balconies overlooking the stage where the result will be announced.

Broadcaster Kate Garraway, whose late husband Derek Draper was from Chorley, waved to Sir Keir and shouted: “Hello Keir, congratulations Prime Minister.”

Members of the crowd cheered.

A veteran Tory councillor has admitted the scale of Conservative losses in  Lancashire predicted by the exit poll would be devastating for his party.

Michael Green - who was first elected in 2003 and is the cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Lancashire County Council - said he did want not to pre-empt the actual results, but added that he feared losing  "excellent MPs who have been really hardworking over many years...[and] that would be really disappointing".

He said that while "the pendulum" appeared to have swung against the Conservatives - with every Lancashire constituency bar Fylde predicted to turn to Labour - he did not believe there was any "direct impact" for the Tories in their efforts to retain control of the county council in local elections next year.

"At the county council, the work will go on - we've got a very exciting plan of work to come - a cabinet that is working hard...to deliver better outcomes for Lancashire residents in many ways," County Cllr Green said.

After an announcement explaining how there was a handful of disputed ballots, candidates and agents were quick to flock to the ‘spoiled’ papers.

Staff and other individuals have been tasked with sorting through a number of ballot papers that were incorrectly crossed off.