A nail-biting night, which saw a constituency vote go to the count twice, ended in a narrow victory for a town's serving MP.

Labour's John Woodcock held his seat in Barrow and Furness by just 209 votes, and was made to wait for his celebrations after the Conservatives’ Simon Fell requested a recount.

Following the announcement at 3.45am, that the votes would be checked once more, Mr Woodcock finally received confirmation of his victory just after 4.30am.

He received 22,592 votes and Mr Fell won 22,383 votes.

Liberal Democrat Loraine Birchall polled 1,278 votes, Ukip's Alan Piper got 962 votes and Rob O'Hara, of the Green Party, received 375 votes.

Turnout was 68.5 per cent, In the 2015 General Election, turnout was 63.3 per cent.

A tearful and ecstatic Mr Woodcock said his previous two elections had also been special but that this week’s was “the one”.

He praised Mr Fell as a kind and honourable man.

He said: “It’s been a rollercoaster night, and it’s been so close.

"One minute we were behind, the next ahead, then we were behind again.

"If I’m being candid, I thought my majority was going to be too tight to hold on, and I am so, so pleased that the people of Barrow have put their trust in me again."

In a direct address to the people of Barrow, Mr Woodcock added: "I will always, always put you first, and I will always fight for you."

It had been an unhappy night for the Conservatives, whose agents had arrived at Barrow Town Hall in buoyant spirits, only to quickly fall quiet in the face of the exit polls.

Meanwhile, as the national picture painted disaster for the Prime Minister, hope began to grow among those bearing red rosettes.

It had been clear from the off that the evening's events would go to the wire.

The eyes of the country had been on Barrow, with national media arriving en masse, as the town posed a major target for the Conservatives to make gains in a marginal constituency.

Mr Fell had only narrowly missed out on taking Barrow during the 2015 General Election, finishing just 795 votes behind Mr Woodcock.

Since then, the Labour MP has been accused of alienating a section of his supporters due to his open criticism of the party's leadership under Jeremy Corbyn.

The closeness of the contest being fought yesterday only became clearer as the evening continued.

After the first count had been completed, there was hope on the faces of the numerous local Labour councillors and members who had repeatedly put aside their within-party differences to take to the streets in support of Mr Woodcock.

The Labour MP praised his team’s "magnificent" work.