Shipley MP Philip Davies slams Tory leadership for 'pig's ear' of a campaign

The Tory MP, who was re-elected with 27,417 votes, saw his majority almost halved from 9,624 in 2015 to 4,681 yesterday.

Rumours had earlier suggested Mr Davies was due to lose the seat he had held since 2005, as his party suffered a rocky night at the polls across the UK.

The Shipley seat had a strong turnout of 73.2 per cent, up from 71.7 per cent at the 2015 election.

Speaking before his result was declared, Mr Davies criticised his party’s national election campaign.

He said: "The issue is that the Conservative Party, nationally, have made a pig’s ear of the campaign.

"What Jeremy Corbyn has done has successfully done is to tap into people's weariness of austerity.

“If this campaign has taught us one thing is that it has nothing to do with Brexit, but lots of people are tired of austerity.

“If you knock on people’s doors like I have, you know what people are talking about.

"I hope that my further term is longer than my third term was.

“I love my constituency and I am very humbled that you have put your trust in me again. I will keep doing my best.”

He also criticised the Conservative Party's policy on social care, which was announced just before the election campaign.

He added: “I am not sure where the party’s policy on social care came from.”

Speaking of his pride at being re-elected, Mr Davies added: “I am delighted to be retained as MP for Shipley. It is the best job in the world. I am elated. I want to thank the people of Shipley.”

He said he plans to continue to protect green belt land in his constituency from development. He added he also wants to take the Shipley and Keighley constituency out of Bradford Council control.

Mr Davies defeated Labour’s Dr Steve Clapcote, who finished second with 22,736 votes, while Caroline Jones (Lib Dem) was third with 2,202 and Sophie Walker (Women’s Equality Party) was fourth with 1,040.

Dr Clapcote says he was proud of the campaign he had fought.

He said: “I think at the start of the night, if we had known that we would have cut Philip Davies’s majority by half, I think everyone would have been delighted with that result."

He added: "Theresa May only has herself to blame for the outcome of this election. She has to take the responsibility for the outcome."

Meanwhile, Ms Walker said during the count that she was proud of her party’s campaign and Shipley was its number one target seat for this election.