Reeves urges Labour to 'learn lessons' as she holds on to Leeds West
Rachel Reeves called on the Labour Party to “learn lessons” from its impending election defeat, as she held onto her seat Leeds West seat.
The Labour MP comfortably kept hold of her constituency, albeit with more than 5,000 votes sliced off her majority, which reduced to 10,564.
She spoke of the need for the party to re-win trust in order to regain power and make changes.
She said: “This evening was a disappointing night for the party I love. The country does not deserve the government it has elected this evening. Our country deserves better than this.
“The Labour Party needs to re-win the trust of people. Labour has not won a general election since 2005 and we with humility and respect need to learn those lessons.
“If we don’t, we are letting down the most vulnerable people in our society. We are allowing our public services to continue to go underfunded, and we are allowing a Tory hard Brexit.
“Without power we are powerless, we are powerless to defend to serve the people we got into politics to serve.
“I will make sure that next time Labour returns to power because we have learned the lessons from this election.”
The constituency of Leeds West covers the council wards of Armley, Bramley and Stanningley, Farnley and Wortley, and Kirkstall.
The seat has been held by Labour since Clement Attlee’s landslide election victory in 1945, except for four years in the mid-1980s when it was briefly held for the Liberal Party by Michael Meadowcroft.
Long-serving MP John Battle then held the seat for Labour from 1987, before retiring in 2010, for the seat to be taken over by Rachel Reeves.
Going into this election, Reeves held a healthy majority of 15,965 gained in the 2017 vote.
RESULTS
Yorkshire Party – Ian Cowling: 650
Alliance for Green Socialism – Mike Davies: 31
Conservative – Mark Dormer: 11,622
Brexit Party – Philip Mars: 2,685
Labour – Rachel Reeves: 22,186
Green – Victoria Smith: 1,274
Liberal Democrats – Dan Walker: 1,787