Newark’s Labour General Election candidate Saj Ahmad conceded defeat to Conservative Robert Jenrick but praised Labour’s national landslide victory

On a night of national celebration for her party, Newark’s Labour candidate welcomed ‘a new pride in politics’ despite personal defeat.

In Newark pollsters had predicted it could be a toss up between Labour and the Conservatives, but once the dust had settled on election night and all the ballots had been counted Robert Jenrick claimed victory and was re-elected as Newark MP.

Despite a hard fought campaign Labour's Saj Ahmad fell just short, taking 17,396 votes to Mr Jenrick’s 20,968.

After the results had been announced Ms Ahmad conceded defeat, but hailed her party’s national success in claiming the largest majority since Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997.

She said: “All of you, like me, and the many thousands of Labour voters in this constituency will be deeply disappointed that we did not win, but democracy is a very special and precious thing and I congratulate Robert Jenrick on his win.

“All of us on the Labour side of this contest can take solace that we will have a Labour government with a massive majority in Parliament.

“After 14 years the British people have chosen change, they have chosen Labour.

“We will see a new, energetic government, which will care about its people. A government which will focus on rebuilding our economy. A government that cares about all our communities and the challenges they face.

“We will see a new pride in politics based on public service.

“My hope is that Labour in government will lead by example, showing the way forward to a future free from divisive politics which sets community against community.

“Although we have lost locally, we can all celebrate that we will have a Labour government focused on building a much better Britain.”

Earlier in the night Ms Ahmad told the Advertiser that she was proud of what Labour had achieved in Newark and recognised that overcoming Mr Jenrick’s roughly 22,000 majority from the 2019 General Election was always going to be hard.

Despite the result, Labour have managed to slash Robert Jenrick’s majority to just 3,572.

She added that she was “looking forward to seeing lots of local Labour MPs do great things for our area.”

Ms Ahmad got into politics later in life with a desire to bring greater diversity to the decision makers in Westminster after spending years in community activism and working for the NHS.

She will now return to her role as a Nottingham City councillor in Wollaton West, but said it had been ‘an utter privilege’ to be Labour’s Paliamentary candidate for Newark.

The returning officer John Robinson announced the Newark results as follows:

• Michael Ackroyd (Green Party) - 2,345 votes.

• Saj Ahmad (Labour) - 17, 396 votes.

• Adrian Amer (Independent) - 809 votes.

• Matthew Darrington (English Democrats) - 156 votes.

• Lyn Galbraith (Independent) - 329 votes.

• Robert Jenrick (Conservative) - 20,968 votes

• Robert Palmer (Reform UK) - 8,280 votes.

• Collan Siddique (Workers Party of Britain) - 150 votes.

• David Watts (Liberal Democrats) - 3,026 votes.