Express & Star

General Election 2024: Recap as Labour rebuilt the 'Red Wall' and Michael Fabricant was ousted

It was a bruising night for the Conservatives in the Black Country and Staffordshire, with Labour taking most of the contested seats.

Published

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565

By 3am, Tory MPs such as Michael Fabricant, Amanda Milling and Shaun Bailey had all lost, as Keir Starmer's party went about rebuilding the Red Wall which was demolished in 2019.

Three successful Labour candidates got to celebrate together in Wolverhampton as they marked a clean sweep of the city's three constituencies.

And there were similar scenes in Stourbridge as Labour candidates won in three of Dudley borough's seats.

Polls had been predicting a large Labour majority since even before Rishi Sunak called the election in May - and the results of the official exit poll released moments after voting closed at 10pm on Thursday backed that up.

Elsewhere in the country, Tory ministers such as defence secretary Grant Shapps and justice secretary Alex Chalk had been voted out, and one particularly shocking result was Labour's Jonathan Ashworth losing his Leicester South seat.

Other heavy-hitters to lose their seats included Penny Mordaunt, Jacob Rees-Mogg and former Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Meanwhile former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn stood as an independent and beat his old party comfortably in Islington North, and Nigel Farage became an MP at the eighth attempt, winning Clacton for Reform.

You can catch up with all the drama of the night and the early morning in our recap below, and read our full reports from each constituency right here.

Local results:

Aldridge-Brownhills

Cannock Chase

Dudley

Halesowen

Kingswinford and South Staffordshire

Lichfield

Smethwick

Stafford

Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge

Stourbridge

Tipton and Wednesbury

Walsall and Bloxwich

West Bromwich

Wolverhampton North East

Wolverhampton South East

Wolverhampton West

Wyre Forest