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Labour’s candidate for the Hartlepool by-election has been branded ‘graceless’ for storming off after a crushing defeat.

Dr Paul Williams was filmed leaving without giving a concession speech or thanking his staff after the Tories won the seat by nearly 7,000 votes.

Hartlepool has been a Labour constituency since it was created in 1974.

Following Dr Williams’ abrupt exit from the Mill House Leisure Centre, leader of the Camden Tories Oliver Cooper tweeted: ‘Hartlepool’s Labour candidate Paul Williams petulantly refusing to make any comments and thank the staff, police, and his volunteers is really graceless.

‘Particularly as it means that no other candidates can make any comments (if second place doesn’t speak, third etc can’t).’

Hartlepool was a key battleground for Labour, as the party managed to hold onto the seat in County Durham in 2019 as the so-called ‘red wall’ of the north was taken from them by the Conservatives.

Paul Williams, who was the first Labour candidate to lose in Hartlepool for half a century, is not hanging around: pic.twitter.com/ai9AyDyMwB

In her victory speech, the constituency’s new Tory MP Jill Mortimer said: ‘I am incredibly proud of the campaign my team and I have run in Hartlepool – it is based on local issues of real concern to the community here, and I would like to thank all of the people of this great town who have responded so positively to it.

I’m also immensely proud to be the first Conservative MP in Hartlepool for 57 years.

‘Not only that, I am the first woman ever to be elected as MP for this town. It is a truly historic result and a momentous day. Labour have taken people in Hartlepool for granted for too long.

This is a breaking news story, more to follow soon… Check back shortly for further updates.

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