Barry Sheerman comfortably retained the Huddersfield seat.
And while the Labour MP said it was a “good victory for me, things are more troubling for my party nationally”.
The MP said: “I’ve lost some dearest friends in Parliament. It just goes to show how politics has changed; the old politics is dead and a new style of politics has begun.
“All of us have to reinvent ourselves and it starts now.”
Mr Sheerman won with 18,186 votes, well ahead of the Conservative Itrat Ali on 10,841.Third place was UKIP’s Rob Butler on 5,948; Green party councillor Andrew Cooper polled 2,798 votes to come fourth; followed by Lib Dem Zulfiqar Ali on 2,365 and Mike Forster of the TUSC on 340 votes.
The turnout was 64%.
Asked what his message was for those who didn’t vote for him, Mr Sheerman said: “I understand that not everyone will vote for me, but as long as they vote that’s fine.
“It’s the people who, when you knock on their doors, they do not want to vote and they despair at politics. They are lost souls and it is those people I want to connect with.”
The MP, who was first elected in 1979, said being chosen to represent Huddersfield was the “greatest thing in my life” adding he was proud to represent the area.
He said: “We have our challenges. Sometimes I walk round the town and see something I don’t like and take a photo so I can raise it.
“Huddersfield is like many towns in Britain, it needs to find the balance and we need to help it.”
