Conservatives win Blyth Valley from Labour in dramatic result that marks party's first ever victory in constituency

The Tories have won Blyth Valley from Labour, marking the party's first ever victory in the constituency and a huge blow for Jeremy Corbyn.

It was the third seat to declare and marked the first loss for Mr Corbyn's Labour, with more expected if the polls are to be believed.

Ian Levy will represent the area after getting 17,440 votes, beating Labour's 16,728, marking a ten per cent swing.

It was ranked 85th in the likelihood of Labour seats to turn to Conservative.

Speaking after the announcement, Mr Levy said: "Most of all I would like to thank the people of Blyth Valley, because if the people of Blyth Valley hadn't voted I wouldn't be here tonight.

"I would like to thank Boris because I would say that I'm going to be on that train on Monday, I'm going to London, we're going to get Brexit done and we are going to build a strong economy for the UK and we're going to do that together."

The Tories have been targeting Labour seats in the north of England and this marks their first win of the night, with more expected if the exit polls was correct.

After the Conservatives gained Blyth Valley, business secretary Andrea Leadsom tweeted: "Bloody brilliant!!!! And when my team and I went to campaign there, the huge plus was the fantastic support he had from young voters!"

Nadim Zahawi, tweeted that the victory in a seat never before won by the Tories was a "truly symbolic moment".

Blyth Valley has had a Labour MP ever since it was formed, when it was first called Blyth, in 1950.

It was previously held by Labour's Ronnie Campbell, a former miner who first won the seat in 1987, and was elected eight times in total.

In 2017, he won a majority of 7,915 with a turnout of 67 per cent. Mr Campbell did not fight this General Election, choosing to retire. Susan Dungworth, stood as the Labour Co-op candidate.

Blyth is part of Northumberland, which voted to leave in the 2016 EU referendum.