DEWSBURY: Tories claim Labour Minister's scalp after boundary changes

The winner is Leeds-based barrister Simon Reevell, 43, who polled 18,898 votes, narrowly beating Mr Malik, who took 17,372 votes.

The last Tory to sit in Dewsbury was John Whitfield who was ousted in 1987 by Labour's Ann Taylor.

Mr Malik, 42, who in 2005 was one of the first British-born Muslims to be elected to Parliament, blamed changes to the constituency boundary which, he said, "brought in 26,000 extra Tories" from rural areas including Denby Dale and Kirkburton.

He angrily denied suggestions from journalists that his expense claims may have played a part in his defeat.

"Absolute nonsense – nobody ever raised it.

"I don't think it's an issue for anybody. I was cleared (of breaking rules)."

In his speech from the podium he also blamed the Independent candidate – former Tory Khizar Iqbal – who he said "was put forward not to win but to ensure that I lost."

Labour supporters cheered and clapped at this.

He told supporters at the count, at Huddersfield Sports Centre, that he was proud of the campaigns and the legacy. "That's a legacy of a winner."

Mr Reevell, 43, who is chairman of the Beverley and Holderness Conservative Association, admitted that boundary changes had helped him, but added: "I think people were generally just fed up with the way the country has been run for the last 13 years.

"It got to the point where they had had enough of it."

He said his "decent, honest campaign" was a "small step to restoring some confidence in politics and politicians."

Despite losing, Mr Malik said he was thankful that the BNP share of the vote had fallen.

Andrew Hutcheson, Lib Dem, polled 9,150.

Independent Khizar Iqbal, a Kirklees councillor who left the Tories in 2009, took 3,813 votes.

British National Party man Roger Roberts, who was a member of the Conservative Party for 45 years, and a councillor in Mirfield for eight, polled 3,265 votes.

At the 2005 election, the BNP achieved their highest percentage vote in the country in Dewsbury (13 per cent, 5,066 votes) and the party came fourth, just one per cent behind the Liberal Democrats.

Much of the BNP vote in 2005 came at Labour's expense.

The failure for Labour in 2010 followed boundary changes which increased the chance of a Tory breakthrough.

The re-drawn boundary took away traditionally Labour/BNP-supporting Heckmondwike and added Tory-voting Denby Dale and Kirkburton.

Aside from 1983, the seat has been Labour since 1935, although sometimes by narrow margins.