In a night full of uncertainly, there was perhaps surprisingly no change for the MP’s in the Stockport constituency.
Stockport, Hazel Grove and Cheadle all held steady, as around the nation results were sending shockwaves across the country.
It was an unsurprising victory for Ann Coffey this morning as she retained her seat in Stockport, which she has held since 1992.
This is the constituency veteran’s seventh time winning a general election. This time she received 26,282 votes.
Coffey has been the town’s MP since defeating Tory Tony Favell in 1992 and voters saw no reason to change tack this time around, despite the vastly different economic climate.
It was always going to be an uphill climb for the main challengers – Tory Daniel Hamilton and the Lib Dems’ Daniel Hawthorne to swing the vote tonight.
Speaking of her victory, Coffey said: “It has been a great privilege to serve this constituency for 25 years and an even greater privilege to be given the opportunity to serve again.
“It has been a fascinating evening to see UKIP almost wiped out and a number of their votes move to Labour, rather than the Conservatives as people expected.”
Speaking on the wider picture throughout the UK, she said: “If I was to make a comment about the situation nationally I would suggest to any Prime Minister that calling a snap election is not a good idea, you might think you know the election but if the electorate is not concerned on the same issues as you it might not work.”
Daniel Hamilton polled 11,805 in Stockport, Daniel Hawthorne secured 1,778, Gary Lawson of the Green Party received 591 votes and John Kelly for UKIP secured 1,088.
Despite the picture nationally, the Conservatives performed well retaining their seats in both Hazel Grove and Cheadle.
The Tories held on to Hazel Grove in what is shaping up to be a disappointing election result for the party.
William Wragg defeated Liberal Democrat Lisa Smart who held the seat pre-2015 election.
Mr Wragg received 20,047 votes, with Ms Smart falling into second place with 14,533.
The returning MP said: “Two years ago I was given the greatest honour of being elected the Hazel Grove MP.
“It is a tremendous privilege to serve them again and continue to have their voice heard at Westminster.
“The past two years have seem tumultuous political events but amid the storms I have always drawn strength from the personal support given to me by my constituents, it is to them who I am most grateful at this election.”
Speaking about the overall performance of his party he said: “I will leave it to others to comment on the national picture, but to suffice to say that as my campaign team know in recent weeks I have been labouring a slipped disk.
“If only wish my fourth and fifth vertebrae had adopted the mantra strong and stable.”
He also thanked his team for a hard fought campaign and said he was delighted by the result which was down to the help of his campaign team and all those who volunteered.
The turnout of the vote was 70.05%.
Labour’s Navendu Mishra received 9,036 votes with the Green Robbie Lee collecting 516.
The seat was aggressively targeted in 2015 by the Tories who sent David Cameron and Boris Johnson to the constituency to bolster Mr Wragg’s campaign.
He added: “I must express my thanks to everyone here today who has helped. I would also like to thank the police for all they have done this evening.”
Conservative candidate, Mary Robinson, was equally thrilled to have retained her seat in Cheadle.
With a 74.5% turn-out she secured 24,331 votes with the Lib Dems coming in second with 19,824 for Mark Hunter. The Labour party took last place with Martin Miller on 10,417 votes.
Following Ms Robinson’s victory she took to the stage to thank all those who had turned out to vote.
She said: “With only three candidates in this constituency it was clear that this seat would be fought for hard.
“I’d like to congratulate the other candidates. My thanks go out to the thousands of people that turned out at the polls yesterday, it showed our democracy at its best.
“When the election was announced in April we knew it would be a short campaign, though it hasn’t seemed so short at times.
“My team has worked so tirelessly over the last seven week and I send them my enormous gratitude.”
She added that it was an “honour and privilege” to retain the seat.
