PHILIP Davies comfortably held onto his seat in Shipley by almost 10,000 votes.

The Tory MP, who received more than 25,000 votes, had tackled key local issues such as demolition of the Bradford & Bingley headquarters, while taking a no-nonsense approach to matters such as crime and punishment.

After lengthy vote counting at Keighley Leisure Centre, which started at 10pm on Thursday night, the result was delivered just after 7am.

Thanking those involved in the process, he said the vote counters would "probably be counting in their sleep" after a strong turnout of 71.7 per cent.

He also praised his rivals in the election for their conduct.

"All the candidates have been a credit to their parties. I wish them well in the future," Mr Davies said.

"They can be proud of the effort they put in.

"They fought this election in the spirit it should be fought."

Speaking of his pride at being chosen as Shipley MP for a third term, Mr Davies said: "It is a great honour to represent Shipley and I would like to thank the people of Shipley for choosing me again.

"Each election my vote has gone up and I'm very pleased about that.

"Whenever you win by a majority like that, it's very exciting.

"I will continue to be an independently-minded MP.

"And whoever forms the government, I will hold them rigorously to account."

Talking about the tough campaign, Mr Davies said he had enjoyed hearing local people's views.

"It's a good result, but you can never be complacent or take people for granted.

"I shall be staying on the backbenches to do the best possible job for my constituent.

"There's still an awful lot to do to win the trust of the British public," Mr Davies said.

Describing himself as "delighted and tired" he added: "I will be celebrating the win by going to sleep," he said.

Shipley Labour candidate Steve Clapcote gained 15,645 votes and said before the count: "What will be will be."

Green party candidate in the Shipley race Kevin Warnes said was invigorated by what he called “the best campaign I’ve been involved with in 25 years.”

Mr Warnes, who stood in the General Election in Shipley and also for re-election to Bradford Council, said he had enjoyed the doorstep chats.

“People are getting our message and deciding to go for something radically different,” Mr Warnes said.

Yorkshire First general election hopeful Darren Hill said his attempt to unseat Philip Davies had been “great fun”.

“People are bored of ‘the same old, the same old’ and are getting what we’re about.

“It’s a small start for the project and people are being very nice,” Mr Hill said.