Who is North Shropshire’s new MP Helen Morgan?

For the first time in almost 200 years, a non-Conservative candidate has been elected as North Shropshire's MP.

Helen Morgan, representing the Liberal Democrats, overturned a huge majority to win the by-election by nearly 6,000 votes.

But who exactly is Helen Morgan and what does she stand for?

Born in the rural West Midlands, Helen Morgan studied history at Cambridge University before taking on senior positions at British Gas.

In 2014, she moved back to North Shropshire to raise her son closer to her family.

More recently, the 46-year-old has been working as a financial controller for the Shropshire family business, Groscott Developments.

She still lives locally in Harmer Hill with her family, while both her parents and sister also live in the county.

Having entered politics as a parish councillor, she stood for election as an MP in North Shropshire in 2019.

She finished third on that occasion with 5,643 votes, which represented 10 per cent of those cast, a long way adrift of Owen Paterson's 35,444.

Having witnessed the closure of both of North Shropshire’s ambulance stations, one of her biggest fights whilst working in politics has been to improve the waiting times of ambulance services, which she believes have hampered by Conservative cuts to the NHS.

When the pandemic hit, she helped set up a Covid response group in her village to make sure vulnerable people got the support they needed.

As a candidate, she promised to fight for the NHS and not ‘her political career’, insisting she wanted the service to be as strong as it could possibly be.

Morgan's political career has not been without controversy however.

Earlier this year she caused a stir after instructing Priti Patel to "please tear up your copy of Goebbels’ manual", in response to a Twitter post from the Home Secretary about asylum seekers crossing the Channel.

She later deleted the tweet, admitting it was insensitive.