A staggering win for Tony Lloyd and Labour in Rochdale

Tony Lloyd speaking to Greg Couzens about his victory

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Labour's Tony Lloyd is the new Rochdale MP after a stunning victory in the General Election. Mr Lloyd attracted 29,035 votes, a staggering 57.89% of the vote and a huge majority of 14,819 - the largest ever in Rochdale.

On a night that former MP Simon Danczuk was completely humiliated, losing his deposit with a meagre 883 votes, Mr Lloyd increased Labour's vote since the last election in 2015 by 8,074 and increased Labour's majority by 2,377.

Speaking to Rochdale Online, Mr Lloyd said he was humbled by the scale of his victory, he added: "The people of Rochdale have spoken very clearly that they want better representation that talks up the town."

Councillor Richard Farnell, the Leader of Rochdale Borough Council and Mr Lloyd's campaign manager, said: "Fantastic result for the Labour Party here in Rochdale; it was only a few weeks ago that people were speculating that the Tories could win this seat because the former MP [Danczuk] would split the Labour vote, it simply hasn't happened.

"Biggest Labour majority ever in the seat, in fact, the biggest majority since the seat was formed in the Great Reform Act in the 1800s - a spectacular result."

The Conservatives came a distant second, though with the highest number of votes for a Tory candidate in the seat since the 1950s with Jane Howard polling 14,216 (28.34% of the vote).

A hugely disappointing night for the Lib Dem candidate Andy Kelly, who polled 4,027 votes (8.03%), down 640 votes on 2015.

As expected the UKIP vote collapsed, just 1,641 (3.27%) votes this time compared to 8,519 in 2015.

Andy Littlewood lost his deposit attracting only 242 votes (0.48%).

The night belonged to Labour and to Tony Lloyd and he was magnanimous in victory, refusing to crow about the humiliation of Danczuk, when given Danczuk's vile and nasty smear campaign against him in the election campaign he could be forgiven for doing so, he remained dignified and focused and promised to go to Parliament and give Rochdale the representation it so desperately needs.

Tony Lloyd MP speaks to Greg Couzens about his election victory

Councillor Richard Farnell speaks to Greg Couzens about the Labour election victory

Rochdale - General Election 2017: Results

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/elections/election-summary/27/rochdale-general-election-2017