New Labour MP for Bolsover says “the change starts now” – as outgoing Mark Fletcher warns against slide towards “even more bankrupt politics”

She won 17,197 votes, compared to 10,874 for Fletcher, and said: “It's the honour of my life to be elected to serve the people of Bolsover.

“Thank you to all those who put their faith in me; I won’t let you down. The change starts now.”

Fletcher gave a speech after the result was announced, during which he thanked his family and those working at the count. He went on to congratulate Bolsover’s new MP, and extended his gratitude to those involved in his campaign – as well as the constituency’s residents.

He said: “Congratulations - I think this has been a pretty good-natured campaign. You have secured a fantastic result, and you are undoubtedly an incredibly passionate lady. I think you will inspire many, many people. I know that this is a brilliant job, and a constituency full of brilliant communities, and I’m sure you will love every minute of it. I really, really hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

“I would like to thank my team, who have fought, in unbelievable circumstances, a brilliant campaign. To those who worked for me while I was MP, I could not be prouder of you - you are all absolutely amazing and you helped so many people.

“You should be incredibly proud of yourselves for what you have done. You will help to change the world for the better after this - you are all young and brilliant. Thank you so much.

“To the people of Bolsover, thank you so much for the honour of being your Member of Parliament. I know a lot of you voted for me and not my party, and I understand why, and I am very grateful to you. It has been the honour of a lifetime to do this job, and it is the best constituency in the country. You always say it how it is, and I could not be more grateful for that.”

Fletcher added that he struggled to justify the discourse that accompanied the election, and called for a reversal of this trend – which he said would lead to an “even more bankrupt politics.”

“I have been phenomenally embarrassed by this election campaign. I think that, on a national level, the political discourse that we have seen on our news, and indeed from my party, has been really very difficult to justify. I think we are in an age in which our politics is now about problems and not solutions.

“It’s about cynicism around people’s anger and manipulating that for political ends, rather than trying to find ways in which we can work together and solve either a community’s or the country’s problems. We have very many of those problems, which I think we all know, but we all need to be a little bit more grown-up.

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“If we continue to go down this trend, and my party is as guilty as any party, we will end up with an even more bankrupt politics. If you look at the turnout today across the country, and you look at the results, it is a depressing sign of what our democracy is. We all need to fix that. Thank you, but there is much, much work to do. It will be led by Natalie I’m sure, but it has been the honour of a lifetime to be an MP here.”