The Labour Party narrowly won the first ever general election contest in the new Earley and Woodley constituency.

Created in the summer of last year, the constituency covers its eponymous towns, Shinfield, the Whitley and Church wards of Reading Borough and surrounding villages. 

Yuan Yang, the Labour candidate, narrowly won the seat in the general election held on Thursday, July 4. 

She won by 848 votes against runner-up Pauline Jorgensen, the Conservative candidate and the current leader of the opposition on Wokingham Borough Council. 

Coming in third place was Tahir Maher, who served as a councillor for around 22 years, as well as being Earley Town Mayor in 2022/23. 

Ms Yang previously worked as a Financial Times journalist and had her book 'Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China' published earlier this year. 

View the results in full here: 

 Yuan Yang, Labour - 18,209 

Pauline Jorgensen, Conservatives - 17,361

Tahir Maher, Liberal Democrats - 6,142

Gary Shacklady, Green Party - 3,418

Alastair Hunter, Social Democratic Party - 784

Mrs Jorgensen, also a councillor for Hillside in Lower Earley on Wokingham Borough Council resumed her role as leader of the opposition following the election. 

The vote count was held at the Loddon Valley Leisure Centre in Rushey Way, which is also where the Wokingham constituency vote was counted. 

Gary Shacklady the Green candidate, came in fourth with 3,418 votes. 

Meanwhile, Alastair Hunter, from The Social Democratic Party received 784 votes. 

Reform UK did not stand a candidate in the constituency as it had a pact to not field a candidate where The Social Democratic Party stood.