Ian Austin hails 'remarkable achievement' after dramatic Dudley election night
Hanging on to his seat despite it being by the narrowest of margins was still a 'remarkable achievement' says Labour's Ian Austin.
The Tories had set their sights on turning it blue but it wasn't to be after what turned out to be a dramatic night for Dudley North.
There were two re-counts after the first count revealed it was neck and neck between the Labour candidate and the Conservatives' Les Jones.
WATCH: Highlights from dramatic election night
At just after 7am the result was finally declared at Stourbridge's Crystal Leisure Centre with Mr Austin finishing just 22 votes ahead of his Tory rival.
He said: "I'm very pleased to have won. More people have voted for me in Dudley North than ever before. I think my share of the vote has gone up too.
"It's always a hard fought contest in Dudley North. I'm very pleased to have been re-elected and I will be working hard for people as I have always done.
"In the end this was one of the seats that Theresa May called the election to win. It was one of those target seats that they spent a lot of money flooding it with material with Theresa May all over it.
"So I think to have hung on in a traditionally marginal seat, it's always going to be close contest in Dudley North, is a remarkable achievement."
Mr Austin said he now had a number of properties following being re-elected.
"I'll be working as hard as possible to improve education in Dudley.
"I promise to work as hard as I can to help with the new £30 million industrial skills and apprenticeships centre in the town centre.
"I will be working non-stop on that and trying to transform the town centre.
"I will be fighting hard for patients and staff at Russells Hall Hospital when they're faced with cuts.
"Every day for the last 12 years I've got out of bed and thought what can I do to improve things in Dudley and I promise local people that that will go on," he added.
During his victory speech he paid tribute to both the police and his Tory rival, saying: "I want to thank the police for looking after us and keeping us safe during the terrible events of the last few weeks.
"I would also like to pay tribute to Les Jones who is a good, serious candidate and a decent guy."
Meanwhile Mr Jones said Runner up Les Jones said: "It is a great shame to me that we have not managed to turn all of the Dudley borough blue. But we were very close - look at what we can do when we work together.
"Our campaign has been focused on doing what's best for this country as well as this constituency."
He said that parliament needed to 'come together' now in the wake of the election results.
"Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think the idea behind calling the election was a good one to strengthen our position when negotiating exiting the European Union.
"But sometimes things do not work out that way, but what I hope now is that all parties in parliament come together. We need to roll up our sleeves and get on with it the best we can."
Speaking about his local campaign, he said: "I love the feel and atmosphere of the exercise of democracy. It's been a fantastic campaign from a local point of view."
