Labour takes Wolverhampton and Black Country seats
Labour has made big gains across Wolverhampton and the Black Country as part of its landslide general election victory, reclaiming symbolic seats lost five years ago.
The party won two of Wolverhampton’s three seats from the Conservatives and retained control of the third.
Labour also ousted the Tories in Black Country seats such as Dudley, West Bromwich, and Walsall and Bloxwich.
Wolverhampton was a key battleground in the lead-up to polling day, as Labour sought to reclaim dominance in what had been a traditional stronghold for their party until the 2019 election.
Sureena Brackenridge, who was raised in the Ashmore Park area of her constituency and studied at the University of Wolverhampton, won Wolverhampton North East with 14,282 votes, a majority of 5,422 over Conservative candidate Jane Stevenson.
The Tories had won the constituency in 2019 for the first time in more than three decades.
Labour’s Warinder Juss, a personal injury lawyer, won in Wolverhampton West, another seat that had gone to the Tories in 2019.
Mr Juss secured 19,331 votes, giving him a majority of 7,868 over Tory candidate Mike Newton.
The city’s third seat, Wolverhampton South East, was held by Labour’s Pat McFadden, who will now serve his sixth term.
“This is a big moment for the country, it's a big moment in Labour history,” Mr McFadden said of the result across the country.
Reform UK beat the Tories to second place in Mr McFadden's constituency and came third in the other Wolverhampton seats.
Labour made gains across the Black Country, with Sonia Kumar winning in Dudley, a new constituency.
NHS physiotherapist Ms Kumar got 12,215 votes, while the Conservatives’ Marco Longhi, who was elected MP for Dudley North in 2019, got 10,315 votes and saw his vote share fall by more than 34%.
Ms Kumar said that being a frontline NHS worker had helped to show voters that she was someone they could trust.
"They could see someone that’s passionate and not a career politician," she said.
Reform candidate Andrew Southall, who came third with 9,442 votes, said at a counting centre ahead of the results that "whatever happens, I'm pleased with what we've achieved" because "we've given the Tories a run for their money."
The seats in Stourbridge and Halesowen also both switched from blue to red, with wins for Labour's Cat Eccles and Alex Ballinger respectively.
In Sandwell, Labour again won back seats it had lost in 2019, when many of its so-called Red Wall constituencies turned to the Tories.
Sarah Coombes won 16,872 votes in West Bromwich, a new constituency whose predecessor had been held by the Conservatives. Ms Coombes won more than twice as many votes as her second-place Tory rival.
Labour also won in Tipton and Wednesbury, another new seat, after the party lost the now-dissolved safe seat of West Bromwich West five years ago.
The party also retained its seat in Smethwick, with former councillor Gurinder Singh Josan winning almost half of the vote share.
“I think it’s really moving that I, a child and grandchild of immigrants, can be elected as MP for this area today," Mr Singh said, recalling how a racist campaign slogan had been used in the constituency during the 1964 general election.
There was a rare bright spot for the Tories in Aldridge-Brownhills, where Wendy Morton retained her seat. The area has had a Conservative MP since 1979.
Additional reporting by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.
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