Labour retain Halifax seat... just

Labour's Holly Lynch who has retained the key marginal Halifax seat

The Labour candidate’s 17,506 votes was just 428 ahead of Mr Allott’s 17,078, with a voter turnout of 62.1 per cent.

The Conservatives gained a 5 per cent share of the vote from the 2010 result but it still wasn’t enough to wrestle power away from the incumbent Labour party.

Ms Lynch said: “I’m delighted. Mixed results for Labour across the country but I’m delighted to have the opportunity to work on some big issues in Halifax.

“Save our A&E, tackle food poverty and bring opportunities to our town.”

Mr Allott said: “Obviously it’s a hugely disappointing result. We campaigned extremely hard for two years.

“For various reasons we failed to connect with Park Ward as well as we could.

“Had we secured that vote it would have been a Conservative victory.”

The results in full are:

Holly Lynch, Labour - 17,506

Philip Allott, Conservative - 17,078

Liz Phillips, UKIP - 5,621

Mohammad Ilyas, Liberal Democrat - 1,629

Gary Scott, Green - 1,142

Asama Javed, Respect - 465

Trevor Bendrien, Christian Party - 312