Both Swindon seats turn red as Heidi Alexander returns to Commons

Labour’s general election candidate Heidi Alexander has just been elected as the new MP for Swindon South, a key Labour target seat following recent local election gains in the town.

Alexander was the MP for Lewisham East from 2010 to 2018 and held the role of Shadow Health Secretary from 2015 to 2016.

Meanwhile Labour gained Swindon North, with Will Stone defeating Justin Tomlinson. It had needed a swing of at least 14% to scrape a win.

Labour comfortably secured 41% of the vote to 31% for the Tories.

READ MORE: More profiles of new Labour MPs at the 2024 general election

Labour won 21,676 votes, with the Conservatives securing just 12,070.

The seat was a key battleground Labour that analysis suggests Labour had needed to win to secure an overall majority, assuming a uniform national swing.

To win the constituency, Labour had required a swing result of at least 5.7 percentage points from its tally at the 2019 general election.

Labour’s target seat list is not public, but this seat ranks 55 on LabourList‘s unofficial list of targets – based on the smallest swings required versus the 2019 election.

Nationally, experts suggest Labour needs a swing from the Tories of 8.2pp to be the largest party, 12.7pp to gain an overall majority and 13.8pp for a majority of 30+.

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