Stephen has retained the seat of East Ham, polling 41,703 votes.
Speaking at the count, Stephen thanked the people of East Ham for their “steadfast support” since he was first elected in 1994. “It has been a real privilege to represent the community in Parliament for all that time,” he said.
Stephen admitted it would be “ a long haul" but the party needed to fight back and rebuild support. "Some of us have been through this process before in the Labour party after very disappointing election results," he said. Despite some good policies, Stephen said Labour didn't have "a credible overall package" in the end. "I think that was the problem - people felt we were spraying money right, left and centre, and we can't do that if we are going to persuade people that we should be trusted with government," he said.
"We have to re-learn lessons that were learned. "I was elected in 1994, Tony Blair became leader, changes were made and we're going to have to learn the same lessons again … about how to convince people we can be trusted with the government of Britain."