Labour has won an historic victory in Montgomeryshire & Glyndwr, and will represent northern Powys for the first time.

After a campaign dogged by controversy around the election betting scandal, Steve Witherden has become the new MP for the constituency.

The seat was widely expected to be returned to the Conservatives under Craig Williams when the campaign began, but after an investigation was launched into betting around the date of the election, he eventually lost the backing of his party.

That has now proved to be a crucial factor in the result in the seat, with Labour and Reform both finishing ahead of the Conservatives for the first time.

It's also the first time that the seat has left Tory hands since 2010, when Glyn Davies won it from Lembit Opik.

It was a close fight, with five of the six candidates receiving more than 5,000 votes. Labour were the only party to break five figures, with 12,709 votes against Reform's 8,894. Mr Williams gained 7,775, the Lib Dem 6,470, Plaud 5,667 and Green 1,744.

In a post on X, Mr Witherden said he was “beyond humbled” to have been elected.

Mr Witherden is the head of drama at Ysgol Clywedog, in Wrexham, but he is unlikely to have experienced anything quite as dramatic as this result.

He said: “I would like tot thank the voters of Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr. I believe the term historical result is overused but this really is a historical result.

"Montgomeryshire is the only seat in Wales that had never had a Labour MP so history has been made here tonight.

"Many people here would have voted Labour for the first time and I thank you for putting your trust in me.”

“I would like to thank my wonderful campaign manager and all of the amazing volunteers who expended so much energy and sweat to make this happen, and who have the blisters on their feet and sunburn on their faces to prove it.”

Mr Williams, for whom there were a few audible boos when his name and votes were read out, described his now previous role as "the honour of my life".

“First of all congratulations very much indeed to Steve. You have a great job and I wish you all the best in it," he said.

“I want to quickly thank my whole team on how they conducted this election. I would also like to thank the electors of the old seat of Montgomeryshire for putting their trust in me last time and allow(ing) me (to do) my dream job, representing my home.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it and am very sad I could not earn their trust this time. I’d also like to put on the record my apologies to my team, my family, the constituents of Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr for what has been an election with some ups and downs.

“It has been the honour of my life to have done the job and I look forward to what comes ahead.

“Steve, congratulations again and good luck; treasure it, it’s a great job.”