General Election 2024: A round-up of what happened in the North East
There has been a swing back to Labour in the North East with all but one of the seats which went blue at the last election going red again.
It was a near clean sweep for Labour in the North East - with just one Conservative now remaining.
Matt Vickers won the new seat of Stockton West with a majority of 2,139.
Perhaps the biggest upset of the night was in the rural seat of Hexham, in Northumberland, which was won by Labour for the first time in its history.
The seat, which was the most northerly seat held by the Conservatives during the 1997 landslide and has been blue since 1924, saw Labour's Joe Morris beat transport minister Guy Opperman into second place.
North Northumberland - a new constituency which replaces the old Berwick seat and includes Morpeth, part of the old Wansbeck seat - also saw the loss of minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
In North Yorkshire, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the results had been a "sobering verdict" on his party as he offered an apology.
Mr Sunak held his seat in Richmond and Northallerton.
In his acceptance speech, he said: “Today, power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner with goodwill on all sides.
“And it’s something that should give us all confidence in our country’s stability and future.
“The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight, there is much to learn… and I take responsibility for the loss.
"To the many good, hard-working Conservative candidates who lost tonight, despite their tireless efforts, their local records and delivery, and their dedication to their communities. I am sorry.”
When the very first seats started to trickle in shortly after 11pm it looked like it was going to be a good night for Labour in the North East.
Unsurprisingly, early seats declared in Sunderland South and Houghton and Sunderland Central were holds for Labour.
The new seat of Blyth and Ashington - which includes part of the old Wansbeck and Blyth Valley seats - also went to Labour.
There were also signs early on that Reform had a good night. In the end, the party came in second in 18 seats in the North East.
Darlington - a poster town for Levelling Up since the last election, with the town now home to part of the Treasury - was the first of the so-called Red Wall seats to return to Labour.
Lola McEvoy will be the town's new MP after beating Peter Gibson by 2,298 votes.
Just after 2am, the results started coming in thick and fast with Labour gains in Redcar, Hartlepool, Bishop Auckland and the new constituency of Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor.
In Redcar, Levelling Up minister Jacob Young lost to his predecessor Anna Turley, while in Hartlepool Jonathan Brash beat the Conservatives Jill Mortimer, who won her seat in a high profile by-election in 2021.
In Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor - the seat which replaces Tony Blair's old seat of Sedgefield - Labour's Alan Strickland beat Paul Howell.
The Liberal Democrat's only target in the region was in Harrogate and Knaresborough, which they won with 23,976 votes - beating the Conservatives into second place.
Since the last general election in 2019 there have been significant changes to boundaries across the region.
The North East will have two fewer MPs than it did during the last Parliament, reducing the number from 29 to 27.
Some historic constituencies have disappeared entirely - Tony Blair’s old seat of Sedgefield is gone, with a large part of it reformed as Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor.
Rishi Sunak’s Richmond seat is largely unchanged but has been renamed Richmond and Northallerton.
Others like Berwick, Wansbeck, Blyth Valley, North West Durham and Stockton South have also disappeared.
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