RECAP: Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Hartlepool after Conservative Jill Mortimer becomes town's new MP

Former Hartlepool MP Lord Peter Mandelson said Brexit did not come up on the doorstep, but the Labour Party’s former leader did.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Believe it or not, not on one door that I knocked did a single voter mention Brexit to me.

“The one thing they did raise with me however is Jeremy Corbyn – he is still casting a very dark cloud over Labour.

“Labour voters are not letting this off lightly, he still gets them going on the doorstep.

“One person said to me ‘Sort yourselves out, sort yourselves out. You picked the wrong brother and you ended up with Corbyn so that’s goodbye to you. When you’ve sorted yourselves out, we’ll look at you again’.

“That is what the Labour Party has got to do.”

Lord Peter Mandelson said he had been knocking doors in Hartlepool during the campaign and told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Actually, the reasons for the defeat… if I really had to boil them down to two things I would say they were two Cs – Covid and Corbyn.

“With a bit of Brexit, previous Brexit Party voters backing the man, Boris Johnson, who delivered them Brexit, and also promises of a large dollop of Tory Government money thrown in for good measure.

“All this as a whole turned out to be too heady a cocktail for Labour’s campaign to take on.”

The winning Conservative candidate in the Hartlepool by-election said she is “humbled” that voters put their faith in her.

Speaking to reporters following the count, Jill Mortimer said: “I’m just overwhelmed by the support of the people of Hartlepool.

“It confirms what I heard on the doorstep – they just want positive change, and that’s what we’re going to bring them.

“This town needs to be regenerated, it has been in decline for a long time. There is so much to do. I’ve got a great big long list and I’ll be on it.”

Ms Mortimer said she will now start looking for a home in the constituency.

“I will have a home in Hartlepool without a doubt. I will be going to the estate agents, probably this weekend if I get a minute,” she said.

Lord Peter Mandelson, former Labour MP for Hartlepool, said he feels “fairly gutted” at the result in Hartlepool and also “a mild fury”.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I feel fairly gutted by this result that will obviously certainly please Boris Johnson. I feel sad, disappointment above all, for the excellent campaign workers and party staff and volunteers and our excellent candidate, Paul Williams, who fought such a strong campaign.”

He added: “I also feel, I have to say, a mild fury, that the last 10 years of what we have been doing in the Labour Party nationally and locally has brought us to this result, because that is above all fundamentally an explanation of what’s happened today.”

Lord Mandelson went on: “What I would say is this, and remind the party we have not won a general election in 16 years.

“We have lost the last four, with 2019 a catastrophe – the last 11 general elections read: lose, lose, lose, lose, Blair, Blair, Blair, lose, lose, lose, lose.

“We need for once in this party to learn the lessons of those victories as well as those defeats, and I hope very much that when Keir and his colleagues in the shadow cabinet say this means that we have got to change direction that they actually mean it.”

Freelance photographer Carl Gorse, 41, said: "I think it's a good result for the town. We need somebody fresh.

“Last time I voted for the Brexit Party. This time I voted Conservative.

“Ben Houchen has got quite a lot done.

“I just wish they would do something.

“We have got our railport there - years ago, stuff used to go into it but now nothing happens.

“It could be a good opportunity for the town."

Husband and wife Pat and Ken Turnbull aren't happy with the result.

"I was born into the Labour Party," said Pat, 74.

"My grandmother was a Labour Councillor and she used to take me to meetings."

She thinks Brexit is still having an effect. "I did not vote because I did not know what it would mean," she said.

"Now I know, I would not have voted to come out. I would have stayed."

Ken, 73, has no time for the Tory leader. "I don't like Boris Johnson," he said.

"I think he is a fool. I see the man on the telly and just have to turn it off.

“You see these G7 meetings, and all the Presidents and Prime Ministers look so smart and he's there with his shirt hanging out - what an ambassador for our country."

The Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has congratulated Hartlepool’s new MP, Jill Mortimer, on her election win.

Jill Mortimer is Hartlepool’s new MP after the Conservatives emphatically won Hartlepool’s by-election to break Labour’s 57-year Parliamentary reign over the town.

Mrs Mortimer was declared the winner at just after 7am on Friday morning with a majority of 6,940 votes.

She received 15,529 votes with Labour’s Paul Williams finishing second on 8,589 votes and independent challenger Samantha Lee coming third with 2,904 votes.

Mrs Mortimer successfully overcame a 3,595 majority held by former Labour MP Mike Hill after his sudden resignation triggered the by-election.

Read the full story here.

Take a look through a selection of pictures from the count at the town’s Mill House Leisure Centre as well as some of our favourite photos from election day.