General election: Home Office minister loses in Dewsbury
By Sam Dale
Home Office minister Shahid Malik has lost his seat to the Tories in Dewsbury.
Defending a 3,999 majority boundary changes made the seat a tight notional marginal and a 5.9% swing has ended Mr Malik’s career as an MP.
The incoming Conservative MP Simon Reevell was elected with 18,898 votes, a 1,500 majority over Mr Malik.
Liberal Democrat Andrew Hutchinson gained less than 10,000 votes taking a 16.2% vote share.
The seat was target number 82 for the Conservatives. It contains many ethnic minorities and was targeted by the BNP but their candidate Roger Roberts performed poorly with just six per cent of the vote.
The seat has been held by Labour since the 1920s, with the exception of the Conservative landslide of 1983.
