Mike Amesbury has successfully won the new seat of Runcorn and Helsby for The Labour Party, with Reform finishing second ahead of the Tories.

The seat was one of two to replace the former Parliamentary constituency of Halton, which had been disbanded due to a national shake-up of boundaries.

Mr Amesbury, who had been the MP for the now disbanded Weaver Vale constituency, won the seat for Labour with 22,358 votes. Mirroring a similar dynamic in neighbouring Widnes and Halewood, Labour were followed by Reform with 7,662, which pushed the Conservatives back into third place on 6,756. The Greens picked up 2,715 votes, followed by the Lib Dems with 2,149, The Liberal Party with 479 and Social Democratic Party (SDP) on 116.

Turnout was 42,406 - 59.89%. Although not strictly comparable - turnout in 2019 for Halton was 64%

In his victory speech, Mr Amesbury said: "I'm very proud to have been elected as the first ever MP for the new constituency of Runcorn and Helsby. Together, working with all those of have put their trust in me, and actually those that didn't vote for me either, we can help to regenerate our community."

He added: "This is a change election. It actually means something and that's something that was repeated on the doorstep time and time again."

Mr Amesbury's former seat of Weaver Vale ceased to exist in the shakeup,  but had included parts of East Runcorn, Frodsham and Helsby.

The new seat united the whole of Runcorn and includes Frodsham, Helsby with the Gowy Rural ward, including the village of Elton, transferred from Ellesmere Port and Neston, and Guilden Sutton, which has been transferred from City of Chester constituencies.

My Amesbury added: "I give my thanks to all the voters that have placed their trust in me for the first time and come over to Labour. I'll be a strong representative for rural communities as well as the urban communities in Parliament."