FIRST-TIME Labour Parliamentary candidate for North Swindon Kate Linnegar denied the party’s leader had put people off voting for her.

She said: “If it was the case of the leader being the problem, well, my team have spoken to over 5,000 people and we equally heard from both parties people who were questioning their loyalty because they didn’t like the Brexit policy or the leader.

“I joined the party for Corbyn because he inspires me and he’s a man of morals and principle.

"Whenever you get a leader of a party, you get people who like the leader and people who don’t.”

Mr Corbyn later announced that he will not be leading the party at the next election but will remain in the role to oversee a ‘period of reflection’.

Ms Linnegar added: “I’m very disappointed by the result, I was desperately hoping we would get a Labour MP in North Swindon so we could start to repair the damage that the last nine years of the cuts have done.

“I’m absolutely gobsmacked and cannot understand how Justin’s majority has increased, though we will dissect that over the next few weeks.

“I think the problem is we need to work out why we’re not getting our message out there, because our message of hope and our policies, we know they will benefit the people of Swindon, their communities and families.

“I will be campaigning exactly the same as I have been doing in north Swindon now.

"Losing an election is not going to change my view of what I believe in passionately.”