Tories fail to take top Welsh target seat of Wrexham from Labour

The Conservatives had been hoping to make gains in Wales

First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones (PA)

The Conservatives have failed to take one of their top target seats in Wales, casting further doubt about whether Theresa May will win a substantial majority.

Labour MP Ian Lucas held on in Wrexham, with both Jeremy Corbyn's party and Theresa May's party up around 5,000 votes.

The ConservativeHome website described the seat as "one of the party’s top targets" because of the area's high Leave vote, estimated to be 58 per cent.

Labour ultimately increased its majority by one vote in the seat from 1,831 to 1,832.

The Conservatives won 15,321 votes, up from 10,350 in 2015, while Labour won 17,153 votes, up from 12,181.

Elsewhere in Wales, in Llanelli, Labour increased its majority, up 12 per cent, with the Tories up 9 per cent. Plaid Cymru, Ukip, and the Lib Dems were both down.

A rollercoaster of polls during the election campaign initially showed the Conservatives up significantly in Wales, knocking Labour from first place.

However more recent polls conducted after Labour's manifesto launch showed an equally dramatic turnaround, with Jeremy Corbyn and Carwyn Jones's party re-taking and consolidating their lead.

Seat projections from the University of Cardiff based on YouGov polling suggested that Labour could even take seats off the Conservatives in the principality.