THE Conservative Party has a Leigh MP for the first time in history this morning, Friday.

Lowton East councillor James Grundy has pulled off a huge general election shock in a town that has had a Labour representative in Parliament since 1922.

He polled 21,266 votes, 1,965 more than Labour candidate Jo Platt (19,301 votes), who has been Leigh's MP since being elected in 2017 after a 9,554 majority win over Mr Grundy.

Leigh Journal:

James Grundy, centre, celebrates with his supporters

The incoming MP believes he won because of two major reasons; anger with "Brexit not being done" in Parliament and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn being unpopular with residents.

In his acceptance speech, he said: "We have run a positive campaign and I believe it has paid off.

"I would like to pay particular tribute to Jo Platt, my opponent, who has been been incredibly friendly and generous throughout the campaign.

"And I would like to say this should not be considered any fault on her behalf that she has not won.

"Ninety nine times out of 100 Jo would have carried Leigh.

"On this occasion, however, it was not to be through a combination of anger over Brexit and anger at Jeremy Corbyn.

"I stood on a campaign promise to get Brexit done and fix our town. I intend to stand by that promise.

"The work will start tomorrow and my door will be open to anyone of any party because this is not a one party town anymore."

READ > As it happened: Stunning Conservatives win in Leigh in general election

Among his priorities as MP, Mr Grundy plans to get a railway station back for the town and focus on green belt issues in the area.

The Brexit Party's James Melly finished third with 3,161 votes and the Liberal Democrats' Mark Clayton polled 2,252.

Independent Maureen O'Bern got 551 votes and UKIP's Leon Peters was placed sixth with 448 votes.

There were 168 spoilt ballot papers.

Meanwhile, Bolton West and Atherton Conservative MP Chris Green kept hold of his seat with a majority of 8,855 over Labour.

This represents a large gain for Mr Green from 2017 when he won by less than 1,000 votes.

Nationally, the Tories have won the election by an overwhelming margin of 78 seats.