The Labour Party has held its seat in Oxford East in the General Election with MP Anneliese Dodds saying she is “absolutely delighted”.
After a long night of verifying and counting, it was revealed the party had secured 19,541 votes, giving it a majority of 14,465.
This amounted to a decrease from the last General Election where Ms Dodds secured a majority of 17,832 but was still enough to see Labour glide comfortably into power.
Following the result announcement, Ms Dodds said: “I’m absolutely delighted.
She said: “I’m very grateful indeed to all those people who voted Labour in this election.”
Ms Dodds said her priorities, going forward, would involve making Oxford East less of a “very unequal place” and building more “social, genuinely affordable homes”.
The Green party had the second-highest number of votes at 5,076 – up from the 2019 result of 2,392 where it had placed fourth.
Speaking at the count before results were announced, Green candidate Sushila Dhall said she had thought it was a possibility the party could come second and that “it would be wonderful”.
Independent candidates were expected to make gains largely due to some disillusion in the constituency with controversial traffic policies such as low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and the rhetoric on Gaza.
Read more: Full results for all Oxfordshire constituencies.
They made gains, but these were not substantial enough to see them overtake any mainstream parties.
The Independent Oxford Alliance, which had gained four seats in the local elections, saw its candidate get 2,381 votes, and Independent Amir Steve Ali received 1,761 votes.
We asked Ms Dodds whether she considered any of the Independent gains to be substantial.
She said: “Oxford’s always been a very politically competitive city, and it always has been.
“There are no certainties in Oxford, but nor should there be.
“My approach has always been to try and understand all the concerns of people in Oxford East so that I can then try and act on the basis of them.”
The full list of results is as follows:
Anneliese Dodds – Labour and Co-operative Party – 19,541
Sushila Dhall – Green Party – 5,076
Louise Brown – The Conservative Party Candidate – 4,739
Theodore Ernest Jupp – Liberal Democrat – 3,437
David Henwood – Independent Oxford Alliance – 2,381
Amir Steve Ali – Independent – 1,761
Zaid Marham – Workers Party – 615
Jabu Nala-Hartley – Independent – 600
Andrew Smith – Rejoin EU – 425
Katherine Mary Longthorp – Party of Women – 337
Benjamin Adams – Social Democratic Party – 232
Brandon Luke French – Workers Revolutionary Party – 197
