Debbie Abrahams wins Labour seat by around 1,500 votes

DEBBIE Abrahams will remain as the Labour MP for the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency, but she had to survive a mighty scare before quietly celebrating her result at around 4am this morning.

Mrs Abrahams saw her 8,000-plus majority in 2017 cut to around 1,500 votes this time on what proved to be a catastrophic night for Labour up and down the country.

Speaking after edging out Conservative candidate Tom Lord after an earlier exit poll suggested she was on very shaky ground, Mrs Abrahams said: "It's been an absolutely devastating night for the party. I think we've had the worst results since 1935.

"We need strong oppositions to be able to stand up to a government that now has a massive majority.

"It's really worrying, and towns like Oldham have continually suffered under consecutive Conservative governments.

The Council has lost almost half its budget, the Royal Oldham Hospital has got about 43,000 people waiting for operations and so on. What do we think is going to happen in the future now?

"The voters have clearly supported the phrase 'Get Brexit Done' and that's something they want to happen.

"Why they want that to happen is something we all need to explore now in a bit more detail.

"I really hope that everything they want from 'Get Brexit Done' happens now. If it doesn't, we need to make sure people are protected as much as possible.

"We need to make sure Oldham doesn't keep suffering in the way it has done over the last 10 years."

The exit poll hinted that Lord was about to seal 61% of the vote in the largest constituency in Greater Manchester, but that didn't materialise, to the relief of Mrs Abrahams, who added: "We anticipated a slight drop, but it did give us a few palpitations.

"We must take that on board now, we must learn from that."

Once again the turnout was low in both the Oldham East and Saddleworth and Oldham West and Royton constituencies yesterday.

Oldham West's turnout was 61.03-per-cent, down from 63.2-per-cent in 2017, though Oldham East's turnout went out to 64.18-per-cent following 2017's 61.7-per-cent.

Result - Oldham East and Saddleworth

Debbie Abrahams (Labour) - 20,088

Tom Lord (Conservative) - 18,589

Paul Brierley (Brexit) - 2,980

Sam Al-Hamdani (Lib-Dem) - 2.423

Paul Errock (Proud of Oldham and Saddleworth) - 1,073

Wendy Olsen (Green) - 778

Amoy Lindo (Independent) - 233

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