HALIFAX: Riordan says campaigning on local issues helped her win second term

Mrs Riordan hung on with a majority of 1,472, polling 16,278 votes to Philip Allott's 14,806 and said she put her success down to listening to the people of Halifax.

She said: "I am really proud to be representing the people of Halifax again.

"The people here have spoken today and I feel wonderful, I can't thank my team enough."

She said she had based her campaign very much on local issues. She said: "I have listened to the people of Halifax and that has paid off.''

Her success in fending off the Tories was all the more remarkable given the national picture with the Conservatives making sweeping gains across the country.

Counting of votes at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax, did not begin until 3.45am yesterday – nearly six hours after the polling booths closed.

Mrs Riordan added: "People are concerned about things like buses, schools and, of course, immigration and they've been quick to point out the many mistakes Calderdale Council has made."

A dejected Mr Allott, a company director and former Mayor of Knaresborough, said he was hugely disappointed.

He felt he was a victim of the collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote.

But he added: "It is an exciting time to be a Conservative. We will be back."

The Conservatives do not have a strong track record in Halifax. And 1983 was the only time since the 1950s they have won a General Election battle in the constituency.

Buoyed by the Falklands war, voters rallied to postal worker Roy Galley and made him the town's MP with a majority of 1,869.

But he lost by a similar number of votes in 1987 and Labour has been back at the helm ever since.

Alice Mahon made Halifax her own for 18 years due in no small measure to her refusal to constantly toe the party line on such things as Northern Ireland, the poll tax, the Gulf War, arms sales and prescription charges.