SELBY & AINSTY: Ex-miners canvassed for me says Tory winner

Nigel Adams won 25,562 votes, beating Labour's Jan Marshall, as the Tories comfortably exceeded expectations to claim their top Yorkshire target seat.

Mr Adams, a director at Leeds telecoms business NGC Networks and an amateur cricketer, said: "We had all sorts of people who never thought of voting Conservative coming over to us. We had ex-coal miners out canvassing for us.

"This is a great result to have seen such a decisive victory and to be elected from my home seat is an unbelievable feeling – and Yorkshire are on top of the county championship so it does not get much better than this. It was an excellent evening and it has been an awesome team effort."

Analysts predicted a Tory victory after the seat, which also includes brewery town Tadcaster and the affluent surrounding villages, was redrawn, creating a notional Tory majority of 2,060.

In the end Mr Adams' margin of victory was 12,265 on a turnout of 71.2 per cent. He said his result, and those in neighbouring constituencies such as the victory in Harrogate, were a "ringing endorsement" of the Tories in North Yorkshire.

John Grogan, who had been the Labour MP for Selby since 1997, decided to not to compete in the new seat.

Mr Adams, the 43-year-old son of a school cleaner and caretaker, said his next task was to try to boost employment locally.

"The biggest priority is jobs. Selby has seen an increase in unemployment since Labour came to power. My priority is to get Selby working."

The married father-of-four, who previously set up and ran a separate telecommunications firm before selling it in 2000, repeated the Conservatives' pledge to scrap Labour's planned national insurance rise.

Mr Adams contested the Labour seat of Rossendale and Darwen in Lancashire at the 2005 election, where he reduced the majority. This year his opposition to two of the Government's most controversial policies – post office closures and the plans to build eco-towns – were prominent in his campaign. He said he also benefitted because he was chosen as a candidate far earlier than his rivals, giving him time to make his pitch and "pound the streets".

William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary and MP for Richmond, and Baroness Warsi, the Shadow Community Cohesion Minister, also visited him on the stump as the Tories spent heavily across Yorkshire.

Mrs Marshall tried to garner support on a record of Government investment in the constituency over the past 13 years, citing the new college in Selby, the bypass, the development of a new hospital and flood defences.

A long-standing local councillor and auditor by trade, she said after defeat that Labour "would be back in Selby" and vowed to "continue fighting for Labour".

Mrs Marshall also paid tribute to the retiring Mr Grogan, saying he had been "an excellent MP for Selby", and she said one of the highlights of the campaign had been the engagement of more young people.

"The TV debates have re-energised people. It was something exciting and people were really thinking."

No voters were turned away from polling stations, Selby District Council said, and the result was declared at 4.52am yesterday.