Tag Archives: Liberal Democrat

By-election

Conservatives Get Result In Norwich North

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Tory candidate Chloe Smith has won the Norwich North by-election with a majority of more than 7000 and at 27 becomes the youngest MP in the House of Commons.  The result comes some 12 hours later than might have been expected due to the unusual step of delaying the count until this morning.  

The seat had been Labour since 1997 when Ian Gibson was first elected.  If the results of this by-election were replicated across the country at the general election, the Tories would be on course for a majority of 100. 

The full results are as follows:

Peter Baggs (Independent)     23

Thomas Burridge (Libertarian Party)      36

Anne Fryatt (None of The Above Party)     59

Bill Holden (Independent)     166

Laud Howling (The Official Monster Raving Loony Party)     144

Craig Murray (Put An Honest Man into Parliament)     953

Chris Ostrowski (Labour)     6,243

April Pond (Liberal Democrat)     4,803

Rupert Read (Green)     3,350

Chloe Smith (Conservative)     13,591

Glenn Tingle (UK Independence Party)     4,068                    

Robert West (British National Party)     941

 The Times reported that the post defeat in-fighting in the Labour party senior ranks began even before the scale of the defeat was officially announced.  The Guardian has been reporting live throughout the morning and predicted the share of the vote between the main parties well ahead of the official announcement.

By-election

Norwich Results By Noon

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Counting is underway in the Norwich North By-election and initial estimates predict a turnout of around 45% which whilst much lower than the 61% for the constituency in the last general election is not startlingly low for a late term by-election.

The main reason for the delay in the count has emerged and the council is claiming that it is due to the high number of postal votes which require verification.   According to the council chief executive Colin Bland “After the last general election new measures were introduced to try to eliminate election fraud. This means that when voters register for a postal vote we collect their date of birth and signature. Once we have received their postal vote we have to check their signature and date of birth against our records to verify their right to vote”.  The council are also pointing to the lower costs of paying counters for day time work.

Th result is expected at 12 noon and a Conservative win is expected.  Interest will also focus on whether the Liberal Democrats can push Labour into third place.