Reflecting on Thursday’s election result, Greg Hands has pronounced himself “delighted” with the verdict in Chelsea and Fulham, which saw his majority trebled, but “disappointed” with the result in Hammersmith.
In Chelsea and Fulham, Greg Hands was elected with a thumping majority of 16,722 votes. Greg received 60.5% of the total votes cast. His majority – 42% over the 2nd placed Labour candidate – was the third largest of any Conservative MP, after William Hague and John Hayes.
The result represented a swing on Greg’s already good 2005 result of 6.1%. The swing is calculated on how Chelsea and Fulham would have voted in 2005.
Turnout on Thursday was 60%.
The full result was: Greg Hands (Conservative) - 24,093Labour - 7,371Lib Dem - 6,473Greens - 671UKIP - 478BNP - 388Independent - 196English Democrats - 169“Blue Environment” - 17 In Hammersmith, however, the Conservatives under Shaun Bailey fell just a little short. Despite a modest swing from Labour, and around 2,500 new Conservative votes, the Labour candidate won with a majority of 3,549. The LibDem vote fell drastically, but the seat remains very marginal. Commenting on both results, Greg Hands, the newly-elected MP for Chelsea and Fulham, said: “The people of Chelsea and Fulham have spoken and it has been a fantastic result, the 3rd largest Conservative majority in Britain. Clearly, we expected to win, but getting a swing of 6% in an already very Conservative seat, and with a great result in 2005, is a great result. The result in Hammersmith is disappointing. No Conservative candidate could have done better than Shaun Bailey, but Labour ran on a set of lies about Conservative policies both nationally and locally, and scared a lot of voters into voting for another 5 years of Gordon Brown. We remain confident of taking Hammersmith at the next election, however, whenever it may come.”