Sarah Smith has been named as Hyndburn’s new MP just weeks after being chosen as the Labour candidate.
Smith won with a majority of around 1,600 ahead of incumbent Sara Britcliffe who had held the seat since 2017.
It was only one day before the deadline that she was announced as candidate, being chosen as a replacement for former MP Graham Jones who was suspended by the party for comments made about Israel.
Amid claims she had been parachuted in, Smith spoke often of her family links to the constituency and said she and her young family planned to move to Hyndburn after the election.
Speaking after she was named winner, Smith said: “Thank you to the people of Hyndburn and Haslingden for putting your trust in me. Now the hard work starts to deliver the change you voted for.”
Britcliffe, who has very close family and political ties in Hyndburn, had been elected in 2019 when the so-called Labour ‘Red Wall’ crumbled and Boris Johnson won his majority.
The constituency has swapped between Labour and the Conservative since its inception and the pendulum moved back as Smith won with 12,186 votes. Britcliffe was second with 10,499 while Reform’s Richard Oakley picked up 7,541.
Across the country, Labour won a historic landslide that saw a generational change in The Houses of Parliament. Keir Starmer will now become the Prime Minister.
Labour rebuilt much of its so-called ‘red wall’ that it lost in 2019 when Boris Johnson won his majority - though it was not without losing some seats, such as Blackburn and Islington North, to independent candidates. However, it was also a good night for The Liberal Democrats, The Green Party and Reform UK, who all made gains.
We want to bring campaigning back into journalism. Lend us a hand, and get our weekly newsletter and magazine editions in your inbox, for free.
