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.