Telford General Election results: Lucy Allan sees off Labour challenge and holds seat

The Telford constituency was won by only a majority of 730 in 2015, and with everything to gain both Ms Allan and Labour candidate Kuldip Sahota said any result would be too close to call.

In the end the Conservatives won with 21,777 votes – only 720 more than Labour’s 21,057.

Susan King, the Liberal Democrat candidate, received 954 votes, while the Green Party’s Luke Shirley – the youngest candidate – received 898 votes.

With a turnout of more than 65% in Telford, it was a jump of more than four per cent in the last count.

“The people have spoken,” Ms Allan said as she took to the stage, a sentiment repeated by Mr Sahota after he had heard the results.

She said: “Telford is a success story, it’s going places, it’s dynamic and it’s growing.

“I want to ensure that it does not stall.

“Being re-elected is a mandate that is based on your record.

“People have seen what I’m doing in parliament, they’ve got to know me and they have chosen me as their MP.

“I’m very proud and very privileged that they have done that.

“I’m delighted that what has been a tense evening has worked out in a good result.”

Ms Allan said her aims would be to fight for Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital and work on attracting jobs into the town.

She said: “I will be defending Telford’s interests whatever happens over the next few difficult months.

“My original priorities for Telford was about fighting for our hospital and making sure we have amazing business and jobs coming to the town and I want to see that continue.”

Mr Sahota said: “I feel I’ve done well, and my team has done well too.

“We ran a good campaign.

“It’s been a very successful campaign. I’m really proud of the team. That’s democracy, the people have spoken.”

“That’s the way it goes. I’ll just carry on being a councillor looking after my constituents in Malinslee and Dawley Bank.

Mr Sahota said that he wasn’t yet thinking about running again.

Green Party candidate Luke Shirley was mentioned as “one to watch” by representatives of all parties.

Mr Shirley said he had caught the bug for politics and hoped to continue.

“It’s been very eye opening,” he said. “We’ve taken the opportunity to put our policies out there. Now we’ll look for local elections, try and get a foothold locally and then build that as a platform for the national scale.”

2017 Results

Lucy Allan (Con) - 21,777

Kuldip Sahota (Lab) 21,057

Susan King (Lib) 954

Luke Shirley (Green) 898

Turnout: 65.56%

Previous election results for Telford

2015: LUCY ALLAN (Con) -16,094 David Wright (Lab) - 15,364 Denis Allen (Ukip) - 7,330 Peter Robert Hawkins (Green) - 930 Ian Phillip Croll (Lib Dems) - 927 CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY - 730

2010: DAVID WRIGHT (Labour) – 15,977 Tom Biggins (Con) – 14,996 Phillip Bennion (Lib Dem) – 6,399 Denis Allen (Ukip) – 2,428 Phil Spencer (BNP) – 1,513 LABOUR MAJORITY – 981

2005: DAVID WRIGHT (Labour) – 16,506 Stella Kyriazis (Con) – 11,100 Ian Jenkins (Lib Dem) – 4,941 Tom McCarthy (Ukip) – 1,659 LABOUR MAJORITY – 5,406

2001: DAVID WRIGHT (Labour) – 16,854 Andrew Henderson (Con) – 8,471 Sally Wiggin (Lib Dem) – 3,983 Nicola Brookes (Ukip) – 1,098 LABOUR MAJORITY – 8,383