SIR Michael Spicer says he never thought his victory in his West Worcestershire constituency was in doubt.

With 20,597 votes to his nearest rival, Liberal democrat Mike Hadley's 15,223, he increased his majority to 5,374.

Labour candidate Waqar Azmi polled 6,275 votes and Ian Morris from the UK Independence Party 1,574.

Sir Michael said that the result bucked the tide of Liberal democrat successes in many other parts of the country and said: "To get a swing against them in West Worcestershire was, I suppose, very gratifying.

"Our canvass returns were always pretty solid, so I was never concerned about losing."

He is now one of the leading candidates to take over chairmanship of the Conservative Party's 1922 Committee of backbench MPs.

"Hopefully I will be in a position then to help with reforming of the party on policy matters."

He said he believed the party needed to come up with fresh ideas on how to improve and reform the public services to win greater public support.

Locally he said one of his main priorities was to push for more help for flood-hit areas of the constituency. "John Prescott promised there would be £52 million for flood prevention measures and we haven't heard much since.

"One of my jobs is to make sure that Worcestershire does receive its share," he said.

He also said he would be calling for a large-scale public inquiry into the foot and mouth crisis, because, he said: "It has been badly handled and lessons need to be learned and learned in public."

The future of Pershore's hospital is another matter of concern to him and he said: "Pershore is a lovely little hospital, which has got to be cherished."