CHRIS CHOPE & DESMOND SWAYNE
The General Election took place yesterday on 7 May 2015. The Conservatives won by an overall majority (329) with David Cameron returning as Prime Minister. Labour leader Ed Miliband and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg both resigned today. The SNP almost made a clean sweep in Scotland winning 56 seats (50 more than in the last election). Labour have 232 seats, Lib Dems 8, UKIP 1 and others 23.
On resigning Ed Miliband said he was “deeply sorry” about the result in Scotland. One of the unexpected casualties of the election was Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls who lost his Leeds seat to the Conservatives. The country is still waiting to see if Paddy Ashdown will “eat his hat” after claiming that he would publicly do so if the exit poll suggestion that the Lib Dems would lose dozens of seats were true.
Here are some of our local results:
Christchurch
Conservative Christopher Chope 28,887
UKIP Robin Grey 10,663
Labour Andrew Satherley 4,745
Liberal Democrat Andy Canning 3,263
Green Party Shona Dunn 2,149
CON majority: 18,224
Mid Dorset and North Poole
Conservative Michael Tomlinson 23,639
Liberal Democrat Vikki Slade 13,109
UKIP Richard Turner 5,663
Labour Patrick Canavan 2,767
Green Party Mark Chivers 1,321
CON majority: 10,530
North Dorset
Conservative Simon Hoare 30,227
UKIP Steve Unwin 9,109
Liberal Democrat Hugo Miéville 6,226
Labour Kim Fendley 4,785
Green Party Richard Barrington 3,038
CON majority: 21,118
New Forest West
Conservative Desmond Swayne 28,420
UKIP Paul Bailey 7,816
Labour Lena Samuels 5,133
Liberal Democrat Imogen Shepherd-DuBey 3,293
Green Party Janet Richards 2,748
CON majority: 20,604
