More women have been voted in to parliament at this election than ever before, with female MPs holding almost a third of all seats.

In Birmingham, John Hemming, the defending Liberal Democrat MP for Yardley, lost his seat to Labour candidate Jess Phillips.

Edgbaston MP Gisela Stuart continued her run of edging out Tories by securing her seat again.

The German-born Labour politician fended off a challenge from Conservative candidate Dr Luke Evans, polling 18,518 to his 15,812.

And in Ladywood Labour’s Shabana Mahmood defended her safe seat - which bookies had claimed only White Dee could challenge .

Ms Mahmood was 100/1 on with bookies to hold Ladywood, and secured 26,444 votes - which represented a majority of 21,868.

In actual fact her closest challenger was Tory Isabel Sigmac, on 4,576.

In Solihull, however, Lib Dem Lorely Burt lost the seat to the Conservatives’ Julian Knight after the Tories won 26,956 votes against her 14,054.

In Cannock, the Conservatives held on with new candidate Amanda Milling replacing Aidan Burley.

Conservative Margot James held Stourbridge with 21,195 votes, beating Labour’s Pete Lowe into second place. Labour’s Emma Reynolds retained Wolverhampton North East.

Tory Karen Lumley was re-elected as MP for Redditch, coming in first with 20,771 votes, beating Labour’s Rebecca Blake who received 13,717 votes.

Across the country around 190 women have been elected as MPs, a significant rise on the 148 who were elected from 650 seats in 2010, when women made up 23 per cent of the House of Commons.

The Conservatives have at least 65 women MPs, over a third more than 2010.

But the Liberal Democrats, who faced a humiliating night in the polls, are now without a single woman in parliament.

The total number of female MPs is expected to be around a third, but while that would represent a record number of women it still does not reflect the UK gender divide, as more than half the population is female.

Some areas have seen major changes in the number of women holding seats.

In Bristol all four constituencies are now held by women, while in Glasgow four of the seven seats - which are all now under SNP control – are represented by women.

Scotland itself has 20 women MPs, some 34 per cent of the total there.

Among the female winners was Tory Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, who saw a massive increase in her majority in the Loughborough constituency as she took 50 per cent of the votes, along with defence minister Anna Soubry, who comfortably held Broxtowe for the Conservatives.

Conservative employment minister Esther McVey lost her Wirral West seat, being ousted by Labour by 417 votes.

Three of the main parties – the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens – are led by women, with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper likely to be one of the front runners for Labour if Ed Miliband steps down as leader.