Ashton-under-Lyne general election 2024 results in full: Angela Rayner gets hero's reception as she heads for top job

A jubilant Angela Rayner said she was 'humbled' as she became the most powerful woman in the country. Labour's deputy leader is set to become Deputy Prime Minister with her party securing a thumping majority.

After being overwhelmingly re-elected to her seat in Ashton-under-Lyne in Tameside, she said the country had signalled it was ready to 'turn the page' and 'write a new chapter'.

The result in the constituency was never in doubt. It seat hasn't been blue for almost a century. The last Tory to hold it was John Broadbent in 1935. Locally, Ms Rayner was keen to increase her majority which had been slashed from over 11,000 in 2017 to just over 4,000 in 2019.

READ MORE: LIVE: General election 2024 results and updates across Greater Manchester and UK

In the end, she did just that, securing 15,573 votes to take it up to 6,791. Her vote was share down 3.6 per cent on the last election, and with a markedly reduced turnout of 50.14pc, the lowest in the constituency since 2001.

The Tory vote plummeted by almost 10,000 with Reform's Robert Barrowcliffe, who secured 8,784 votes, finishing comfortably above Lizzie Hacking, considered a rising star in Conservative circles and who got 4,375 votes, in second.

The seat had been a key target for George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain, who launched their campaign in the constituency and expressed a desire to embarrass Labour by ousting their deputy leader.

Their candidate Aroma Hassan said beforehand she was 'quietly confident of doing very well'. However, they finished a distant fourth with 2,835.

Ultimately, that was just one part of the bigger picture. Just like her Shadow Cabinet colleague Jonathan Reynolds, whose Stalybridge and Hyde seat was also being counted at Duknfield Town Hall, her eyes were also firmly fixed elsewhere.

As Sir Kier Starmer's right-hand woman, she has been a pivotal part of the party's campaign. She has toured the country on a battle bus and stepped in for the leader at two seven-way TV debates.

The biggest indicator Ms Rayner would be standing at many more such podiums in the forthcoming weeks, months and years came as the exit poll dropped at 10pm. A local councillor and a canvasser stood staring aghast for a few seconds before they embraced each other and posed for pictures in front of the giant TV screen.

Just a few minutes, later Ms Rayner appeared on the screen herself, speaking live from the garden of her home in Ashton. She was reserved, and almost coy, as she said the results were 'encouraging' but that many seats were on a 'knife edge.'

She also said it would be an 'absolute honour and a privilege to be re-elected', first as the MP for her constituency but also to be able to serve as deputy prime minister.

Tameside's council leader Ged Cooney cooed that it would be a 'proud moment' and potentially politically beneficial for the borough to have a local representative in such high office.

He and his party's supporters waited patiently to give her a hero's welcome, but her arrival at the count was covered in secrecy and security.

Police officers filed into the hall before she eventually appeared on the stage via a side door just moments before the declaration was made at just before 3am. There were ear-piercing cheers and chants of 'Labour!' and 'An-ge-la' after the returning officer read the result.

In her victory speech, Ms Rayner said: "It is a vote for change. It is a vote for an end to division and to bring our country together. To replace self-service with public service, to take what is broken, and begin to rebuild it. And to restore the belief of those who have had hope taken away.

"It is with a real sense of pride that we have changed the Labour Party to offer that unity of purpose. That vision of renewal that our country so desperately needs. Today is our chance to turn the page and start a new chapter.

"To tackle the cost of living crisis and to make work pay. To give working people the new deal you deserve and provide homes that we need. To rebuild the public services on which we rely and to ensure every community across our country shares in our national success."

Labour has been riding high in the polls. But the last few months have at times been quite bruising for Ms Rayner after a row erupted over her living arrangements before she became an MP. A police investigation cleared her of any wrongdoing six days into the campaign.

"Throughout my life, I have faced challenges," she said. "But I have also seen the power that comes from our community." She recalled her upbringing on Stockport's Bridgehall estate, where she said is still known as 'our Ange.'

She said her family, friends and supporters had been 'such a source of strength for me, not just over the last weeks, but my whole political life.' "You stuck by me, you had my back, and now I hope to do you proud in a Labour government," she added.