Wolverhampton West election result: Labour gain makes clean sweep in city

Mr Juss beat seven other candidates, finshing with a majority of nearly 8,000 ahead the Conservatives' Mike Newton.

Mr Juss victory followed Pat McFadden and Sureena Brackenridge successful campaigns in South East and North East seats respectively.

Wolverhampton West was reformed for this election from the old Wolverhampton South West constituency, whose Tory MP of five years, Stuart Anderson, moved to represent the party in South Shropshire.

Mr Juss said: "I want to thank my opponent Mike Newton for running a clean campaign, we have always be gracious towards each other when we have met on the campaign trail.

"I want to thank former Wolverhampton MP Rob Marris, he has always been on hand for advice, he has been my mentor. I want to thank the people of Wolverhampton West for putting their trust in me. We ran this election on an agenda of change, I promise to serve my voters with upmost commitment, integrity, passion and dedication.

"I want to thank my family, who have supported me throughout, I am only sad my parents who saw me on the start of this journey are not here. I am optimistic for the future, we promise to put country before party."

The seat is a gain for Labour, having lost the now-defunct Wolverhampton South West constituency in 2019 to Mr Anderson.

Conservatives were in shock at the count in Aldersley Stadium with many blaming their Westminster colleagues for their party's drubbing. Within an hour of the first ballot boxes arriving into the counting hall it became obvious Labour were on track to take all three Wolverhampton seats.

One Tory councillor, who did not want to be named, said: "I have never been involved in a campaign riddled with mistakes from the get-go. How the party dealt with Nigel Farage was inviting trouble and then when you factor in the appalling timing of calling the election, the D-Day debacle and the betting scandal, we just never stood a chance."

Wolverhampton Council leader Stephen Simkins cut an all together different figure as the sheer scale of Labour's victory became clear.

The council leader told the Express & Star: "What a night, tonight makes up for all those nights we lost over the last 14 years. I am happy for my party but I am also happy for the people of Wolverhampton.

"For 14 years we have had cut after cut, hundreds of millions taken from our budgets which help this city's most vulnerable people. This Labour Government will understand the importance of local Government and how it works.

"As leader of Wolverhampton Council I have to be pleased we have got a Labour government and three Labour MPs who will be fighting our corner as best they can."

The full results are:

Donald Brookes - Reform UK: 6,078

Andrea Cantrill - Green Party: 2,550

Vikas Chopra - Workers Party of Britain: 576

Celia Hibbert - Independent Network: 1,395

Phillip Howells - Liberal Democrats: 1,376

Warinder Juss - Labour: 19,331

Mike Newton - Conservative: 11,463

Zahid Shah - Independent: 888