It's no change

Victory and defeat faced by Foster

LABOUR'S Mike Foster was 'delighted and relieved' to have held on to his Worcester seat despite seeing his majority slashed by nearly seven per cent.

Mr Foster was backed by 19,421 city voters, a drop of more than 2,000 compared with the 2001 election.

But he admitted he feared the outcome could be much worse and arrived at the count with speeches prepared for victory and defeat.

Foster may have been rattled by speculation that the part he played in bringing about a hunting ban - introducing a Private Members Bill in 1997 - could have left him open to a backlash. But hunting did not emerge as a serious issue during the campaign and last night his supporters described a threatened Countryside Alliance offensive as "a dog that barked in the night".

The outcome will be a bitter disappointment for Conservatives who saw their party come second again and with a lower share of support than four years ago.

Liberal Democrat candidate and flood campaigner Mary Dhonau increased her party's proportion of votes from 13 to 16 per cent while the other contenders all lost their deposit by polling less than five per cent of votes.

"I'm really pleased because it is a very good result in Worcester. It's been a hard-fought campaign, without doubt," said Mr Foster, who was first elected in 1997 and is well known for his support of the hunting ban.

"It has been a very difficult campaign and there are issues where Labour voters have sent a very clear message which as a member of Parliament I will take heed of.

"Iraq is an issue, as is delivery of public services, and in the next four or five years we'll need to speed up the reforms we've been elected to bring in. I'll be delighted to play whatever part I can in that."

Tory Margaret Harper maintained voters had told Tony Blair: "It is the beginning of the end, the Conservatives are making progress."

"We've made significant progress here in the city, we've got a significant amount of support in the last 18 months," she said.

Up, up, up for Luff's campaign

PETER Luff was re-elected as the Conservative Party's Member of Parliament for Mid-Worcestershire with an increased majority.

He received 24,783 votes compared with Labour's Matthew Gregson who came second with 11,456 votes, giving Mr Luff a majority of 13,327 - a rise from 10,627 in the 2001 General Election.

"It was a magnificent result", said Mr Luff after the official announcement in Pershore Leisure Centre. He thanked the people of West Worcestershire for their support.

"It is a wonderful constituency to represent," said Mr Luff.

He added that while out on the campaign trail the one consistent issue raised by people he spoke to was their lack of trust in the Government.

"There was real anger at the Government. In the countryside it was about rural issues and in the towns about the war in Iraq," he said.

While Mr Luff accepted that Labour would form the next government he pointed out that its share of the national vote had fallen.

"The Conservatives are on the march," he said.

The UK Independence Party, which proposes a withdrawal from the European Union, also saw an increase in its share of the vote to 4.35 per cent from 2.7 per cent in 2001.

Anthony Eaves, who ran for the Mid-Worcestershire seat in 2001, said he was happy with the outcome.

"That has got to be an achievement," said Mr Eaves. "We are going in the right direction."

Labour candidate Matthew Gregson said his party would continue to fight for social justice with emphasis on a strong, stable economy, while Liberal Democrat Margaret Rowley thanked her campaign staff for all of their hard work over the past few weeks.

Voter turnout also increased in Mid-Worcestershire, which has a total electorate of 71,546, with 67.58 per cent turning out voting compared with 62.4 per cent in 2001.

Of the 12,969 postal ballets requested 9,838 - or 75.86 per cent - were returned.

Win number nine for Sir Michael

THE Conservatives clung on to the West Worcestershire seat in the closest election battle in recent years.

Sir Michael Spicer clinched his ninth successive term in the seat, despite Liberal Democrat challenger and Malvern District Council leader Tom Wells slashing his majority by more than half, from 5,374 to 2,475.

Tension was palpable at the Bank House Hotel as candidates waited for the final announcement at 4am today.

After results were declared, a clearly relieved Sir Michael, who polled 20,959 votes, conceded that it was a hard-fought battle.

"The Liberal Democrats fought a very good campaign. "Both sides fought cleanly, and we did all we could to win."

Sir Michael, who has held the seat since 1974, said he was delighted to take up the challenge once again.

"I pledge now to represent my constituents as assiduously as I have in the past."

As news of the Conservative victory was announced, Tom Wells insisted the Liberal Democrats in West Worcestershire were here to stay.

"I feel committed to the people of Worcestershire, and am delighted with tonight's result.

"I want to say thank you to everyone who has made this happen for us."

Labour candidate Qamar Bhatti polled 4,945 votes, a drop from Labour's 2001 turnout of 6,725.

Mr Bhatti, from Birmingham, said he had thoroughly enjoyed the campaign.

"I've been welcomed here with open arms by everybody in the constituency, right across the parties.

"It's been a vibrant and civilised campaign."

Despite losing her deposit, UK Independence Party candidate Caroline Bovey was upbeat. After it was announced she had garnered 1,590 votes, she said: "This is an excellent result for the party."

She added she would continue to promote the party's message to keep Britain out of the EU.

Green Party's Malcolm Victory, who also lost his deposit with just 1,099 votes, said people did not think about the environment when voting.

"People don't want to know about the environment now, they want to defer it for future generations," he said.

"That's why we got 1,100 votes."

This year's overall turnout rose to 71.12 per cent, compared with 2001's figure of just more than 67 per cent. Of these, 6,202 were postal votes.

Of 47,232 votes cast, 162 ballot papers were rejected.

The Keetch bandwagon

keeps going

A JUBILANT Paul Keetch held on in the Hereford 'marginal', giving the Liberal Democrats a record third term in the seat - the only non-Conservative party ever to have achieved this.

A strong and determined campaign from the Conservatives' Virginia Taylor failed to put a dent in the Keetch majority, despite adding more than 2,000 to her 2001 total.

What the future holds for her is unclear, but she was clearly stunned by the result and would not be drawn.

As in 2001, the minority parties played a key role in the result, with Independent Peter Morton snapping up 404.

The Greens and UKIP swapped positions, polling just over 1,000 each.

The Lib Dems had put in a massive effort over the past weeks to rally support, and their strength in the city centre was obvious as the votes were tallied. Coupled with a nation-wide Lib Dem surge, this took them past the 20,000 mark and to victory.

Labour's Tom Calver lost out badly, slipping by nearly 2,000 votes from last time when the popular former MEP David Hallam was their flag-bearer.

Speaking after the vote, Paul Keetch accepted that the result was a 'close one'.

He said that he looked forward to working in a parliamentary party led by Charles Kennedy and reflected that he was part of a massive Liberal Democrat revival across the county.

At a local level, he pledged to work with newly-elected Leominster Conservative MP Bill Wiggin for the future prosperity of Herefordshire.

Virginia Taylor was clearly bitterly dissapointed with the result, despite the large increase in her vote.

She said she thought the country needed a change and that Herefordshire needed a change. She had hoped that the electors would have given her the chance to do this and to put the county on the map.

On a night when many constituencies were seeing reduced turnouts, Hereford recorded an increase of just under two per cent on 2001 to 65.3 per cent. Much of this could be due to a rise in postal voting, with 18,602 papers issued in the county (10,290 Hereford; 8,312 Leominster), compared with 1,500 last time.

Vote down, but Taylor back again

DR RICHARD Taylor became the first independent Member of Parliament to be re-elected - but he polled almost 10,000 fewer votes than he did during his 2001 victory.

His smaller majority was down to a surge in support for the Conservatives, overtaking Labour, which had the second-placed candidate last time.

It appears most of Dr Taylor's votes were lost to the Conservatives, who achieved a 13.9 per cent swing, with Labour recording almost the same number of votes as at the last election.

Dr Taylor - who was the only independent MP in the last Parliament - called his re-election 'an enormous privilege'.

He was voted in for a second term having reiterated his support for Kidderminster Hospital, calling for more in-patient surgery and the re-opening of a birth centre - but the transition to a two-tier education system was also high on the agenda.

"This has been a huge challenge but is very, very enjoyable. I didn't realise how much I wanted to retain my seat until I arrived (at the count)," said a quietly jubilant Dr Taylor.

"I will be able to represent local people without the constraints of having a party whip. I'll vote with the Government when it's appropriate and vote with the Opposition when I think they're right.

"It's an enormous privilege to represent local people."

An emotional Mark Garnier, the Conservative candidate, admitted he thought he would win, as late as yesterday.

"We were up against a politician who is a personality and whose personal popularity is very high.

"This afternoon I thought we were home and dry and so I'm now in a bit of emotional

turmoil."

Mr Garnier said he would sit down with his family before deciding whether to stand next time around.

Labour candidate Marc Bayliss put his third place down to having fewer resources than the Tories but said he expected a straight Labour-Conservative fight at the next ballot.

There was no candidate for the Liberal Democrats, after they asked supporters to vote for Dr Taylor.

However, Fran Oborski of the Liberals said she had had 'no daft idea of winning', while celebrity chef Rustie Lee, the self-confessed 'new kid on the block', said the campaign had been 'a total and utter joy'.

Massive majority for Wiggin

A STARTLING 77 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote in the Leominster Constituency - and they returned their Conservative MP Bill Wiggin with 25,407 votes.

Mr Wiggin secured more than twice the number of votes of his nearest rival, the Liberal Democrat Caroline Williams, with 12,220.

The count at the Bridge Street Leisure Centre was fuelled by instant coffee, but it still lacked a buzz. The Conservative majority was insurmountable.

The most disappointed candidate in the sports hall was the UK Independence Party's Peter Whyte-Venables. He failed to make any ground on the 2001 General Election result. Just 1,551 votes were cast for UKIP.

He and his back-up team - average age about 70 - had delivered 20,000 leaflets around the constituency in the run-up, but to no avail.

"I'm very disappointed, especially because we failed to beat the 2001 count," said Mr Whyte-Venables.

He said Mr Wiggin's majority meant the MP will have to start working with UKIP in the coming "battle" to beat the European Constitution.

Asked if he would be standing again, he said, "probably, but you will have to ask me on Monday - first I need to sleep."

Despite a huge publicity campaign, with scores of Green Party signs seen poking out of bushes around the constituency, their candidate Felicity Norman was disappointed with her share of 2,191.

"Our vote didn't materialise, but it was still an improvement on the last election.

Labour's candidate, Paul Bell, said the Iraq War and immigration were the two primary issues where his party had lost out in Leominster, but he was still happy.

"I'm quite pleased with the result - we only lost 300 votes on the 2001 election.

But the night belonged to Mr Wiggin, who mobilised his voters on a ticket of cleaner hospitals, better school discipline, and lower taxes.

"I'm delighted with the result - it's a tremendous compliment to be returned with an increased majority after the work I have put in over the last four years," he said.