Night of sensations which rocked the Tories

Labour had never come close to winning the seat. In fact, ever since 1974 they had always trailed in third, behind the Liberals.

So when Paul Marsden overturned a Tory majority of 14,152 it was one of the biggest electoral shocks in Shropshire's history.

Derek Conway, the sitting Tory MP since 1983, was toppled as Marsden won with a majority of 1,670.

Mr Marsden, from Westbury, worked for a telecommunications firm, and had held various local Labour party posts. He was a key organiser for the parliamentary candidate for a seat near Halifax in 1992 and had also been the campaign manager and social secretary to Teesside Labour Party. Other activities included serving on the national executive committee of The Young Fabians.

History was made in another way that night because, for the first time since 1910, Shropshire was to return five MPs to Westminster. This was because boundary changes had seen The Wrekin seat split in two, to create a new Telford seat.

And it was in that reshaped Wrekin seat that there was another big Shropshire shock which underlined the scale of the Labour landslide.

The Wrekin had been taken comfortably by Labour in the 1992 general election, but the hiving off of much of urban Telford to create a new and separate Telford constituency was considered by the analysts to return The Wrekin firmly into Tory territory, making it notionally a safe or safe-ish Tory seat in 1997.

Things did not turn out that way. Tory candidate Peter Bruinvels, who had forged a reputation as a vociferous right-winger as the Leicester East MP in the 1983-87 Parliament, was confident of success.

During the campaign Tory big hitters like Michael Howard, Malcolm Rifkind, and Michael Portillo, had supported him. But in the event Peter Bradley swept in for Labour. He polled 21,243 votes to Bruinvels' 18,218, a majority of 3,025, and was faced by a cheering crowd as the result was announced at Telford International Centre.

Mr Bradley - Robin Cook had been one of the Labour big hitters to drop in during the campaign to back him - had served on Westminster City Council from 1986 to 1996, and was deputy leader of the Labour group. He was the leader of the 13 Westminster Objectors whose complaint to the district auditor gave rise to findings of gerrymandering by Dame Shirley Porter and others.

In the brand new Telford seat, Bruce Grocott sailed in for Labour with a majority of over 11,000 over the Tories. Mr Grocott had, incidentally, previously been the MP for The Wrekin, standing instead for Telford when the constituency was divided.

Shrewsbury, Labour. The Wrekin, Labour. Telford, Labour. Labour had never had it so good in Shropshire, with three out of the five Shropshire seats falling to the party in a county in which in some general elections Labour had failed to win a single seat.

Even in North Shropshire, a bombproof Tory stronghold which down the years had often seen five-figure Tory majorities, Labour's Ian Lucas came within 2,195 votes of winner Owen Paterson.

The Tories could take comfort in Ludlow though, where Christopher Gill won comfortably ahead of Ian Huffer of the Lib Dems by nearly 6,000 votes.

What nobody knew or could have guessed that night was that the Lib Dems were to have their triumph in Ludlow, and would only have to wait four years to savour it.