A LABOUR seat of more than 80 years was just 500 votes from turning blue as the Conservative candidate made further gains in the area.

Long-serving MP Helen Goodman secured the Bishop Auckland seat for the fourth time yesterday morning after a closely fought out contest in an area once considered safe.

But this General Election it was anything but secure with the Conservative party candidate for the second time, Christopher Adams, hitting the campaign trial hard.

In the weeks running up to the election, Mr Adams was joined by high profile Tory ministers including Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and the Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling, and spoke passionately about his plans to protect the NHS and regenerate town centres.

Mrs Goodman also campaigned hard on issues such as education, the NHS and zero hour contracts, with support from visiting members of the shadow cabinet.

And when the count was declared at about 2.40am yesterday morning, Mrs Goodman proved victorious with 20,808 votes to Mr Adams’ 20,306.

Mr Adams, 28, had narrowed the gap significantly from 3,508 in 2015, to just 502.  However, it was not enough to break eight decades of Labour control of the constituency, which includes towns such as Spennymoor, Shildon and Barnard Castle along with surrounding villages and Bishop Auckland itself.

In her victory speech, Mrs Goodman said she was honoured and delighted to have been re-elected before referring to two Labour voters she spoke to just before the poll stations closed on Thursday night.

“One was a woman who worked on a zero hour contract and she was extremely fed up of the insecurity this meant for her in her life,” said the 57-year-old

 “It made it difficult to plan and meant she was under constant stress. It’s Labour’s policy to abolish these zero hour contracts and to strengthen workers. We were founded by the trade union movement and that really speaks to a lot of people who live in Bishop Auckland and Shildon and Spennymoor and we talked about that and she became convinced that she should be voting Labour through this conversation.

“The second woman was a woman who has a chronic health condition and she really needs the welfare state. She needs a proper income and she needs a good health service. She too saw that Labour was the party who would support her through her difficulties.”

Mrs Goodman praised Mr Adams for leading a strong campaign and said it had been a tough six weeks.

 “I was completely surprised when Theresa May said she would call an election after saying she wouldn’t,” she said.

“I was unprepared so obviously getting everything up and running in order to pull forward and win in six weeks was extremely hard work. But, on the other hand, we had a lot more volunteers than two years ago I was much better supported than I had been in the past so it obviously galvanised a lot of people.”

Liberal Democrat candidate Ciaran Morrissey, 22, came third with 1,176 votes, while Adam Walker, of the British National Party, received 991 votes.

Mr Morrissey said the national results demonstrated the power of democracy.

“If Theresa May did call this election thinking she was going to walk it and it can blow up in her face, it shows how your votes can make a difference.”