Shock in Blyth Valley as Tories make first gain

Labour have seen their 7,915 vote majority from 2017 in Blyth Valley completely wiped out into a Conservative majority.

A tight marginal, the Conservatives only took the seat by 712 votes.

This is the first result of the night to see a change in seats. Both pro-Brexit parties saw an enlarged share of the vote, with the Conservatives up by 5.4% and the Brexit Party seeing an 8.3% increase – this is quantified somewhat by them not previously standing in prior elections.

most saliently Labour party lost 15% of the vote which has contributed to the loss of this seat. A turnout decrease of just over 2000 voters could also be seen as a contributing factor in this outcome, particularly with the majority ending up as a 3 figure amount. 

Britain Elects tweeted a telling statistic in that “since the inception of Blyth as a parliamentary constituency they had never been Conservative.”

Blyth Valley has been Labour since 1931 – when it was Morpeth. Until now.

— Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 12, 2019

The last time the Conservatives had such success in this part of Northumberland was when the constituency was Morpeth (a historically mining based town). Labour leaning journalist Paul Mason has highlighted that the 3000 votes which went to Liberal Democrat and Green party have hindered Labour significantly in this specific instance. 

EnglandOu