Dudley general election result: Labour's Sonia Kumar beats Marco Longhi and pledges unity

Previously split as Dudley North and Dudley South, both seats were held by the Conservatives going into the election with Mr Longhi taking the North constituency in 2019 from Labour's Red Wall.'

But this he lost to the Labour candidate by 1,900 votes, on 10,315 with Andrew Southall for Reform UK performing well to poll 9,442 votes. Ms Kumar polled 12,215 to win by 1.900.

The result meant Labour won all three seats at the Stourbridge count; Halesowen, Dudley and Stourbridge.

In May a row broke out when Mr Longhi was accused of 'divisive politics' when using Ms Kumar's name in a letter to constituents which referred to the Kashmiri conflict.

He looked visibly upset when taking to the stage at the Crystal Leisure Centre in Stourbridge to speak in the early hours of Friday, though was gracious in accepting defeat and also paid tribute to his wife and children who he said had 'not seen much of him' lately.

Recently Mr Longhi spearheaded a campaign to save the Crooked House and rebuild it 'brick by brick,' as well as protect historic pubs and bring Dudley Town FC home.

For her part, Ms Kumar, who works as an NHS physiotherapist, said she would serve the voters who had put their trust in her with a policy of 'unity not division'.

She said: "We ran this election for a changed Labour party where we will prioritise working people, fight for economic stability, cheaper bills, safer streets and to get the NHS back on its feet.

"These are the priorities both at a national and local level, people have told us that. They deserve a health service to be proud of. not one that has been cut down to the bare bones.

"We will secure borders and break down barriers that prevent opportunity for working class people and I will do my best to serve the people who elected me. The hard work starts now."

Talking before the result, Reform's Andrew Southall said the campaign had exceeded his expectations that so many people had voted for him and that rather than Reform splitting the Conservative vote, he felt it had been the other way around.

He said: "We ran a campaign where we took it to the streets and spoke to people rather than knocking on doors where you don't always get a true picture of how people feel, and the response in the towns was overwhelmingly positive. Reform UK has shown there is an alternative and we will hopefully go on an build on a set of positive results."

The full Dudley results were:

Shakeela Bibi - Independent: 857

Ian Flynn - Liberal Democrats: 1,056

Aftab Hussain - Workers Party of Britain: 621

Sonia Kumar - Labour: 12,215

Marco Longhi - Conservative: 10,315

Dharmanand Mortha - Independent: 136

Zia Qari - Green Party: 1,154

Andrew Southall - Reform UK: 9,442

Turnout was 51.1 per cent.