Tories take Norwich North seat from Labour

Conservative candidate Chloe Smith has taken the Parliamentary seat of Norwich North from Labour with a huge majority in the by-election whose result was announced earlier today.

 

Ms Smith won with 13,591 - more than twice as many votes as Labour's Chris Ostrowski who is a Christian.

 

There was a swing from Labour to the Tories of 16.5% on a turnout of 46%.

 

Ms Smith overturned the 5,459 majority won in 2005 by Dr Ian Gibson, the Labour MP who quit the Commons after being banned from standing again for Labour over his questionable taxpayer-funded expenses.

 

In her acceptance speech after the count at the Royal Norfolk Showground, Ms Smith said: “As a Conservative I may not agree with Dr Gibson’s views on everything, but I am determined to represent the people of Norwich North with the same honesty and conviction."

 

She also wished her Labour rival Mr Ostrowski a speedy recovery - he was hospitalised with suspected swine flu days earlier. His wife represented him at the count.

 

In winning the seat, Ms Smith, 27, has become the youngest MP at Westminster.

 

The Bishop of Norwich, Rt Revd Graham James, told Christian radio station Premier he was not surprised by the result: “It wasn’t entirely unexpected. Everybody here expected Chloe Smith to be elected. The majority is a bit larger than some people will have predicted.”

 

Bishop Graham said that this by-election has been unusual after the loss of Ian Gibson, with many of the constituents not turning out to vote.

 

He told Premier: “One of the things that has not been commented on is the exceptionally low turn out level, well under half of the registered voters bothered to vote. That tells you something about what’s been going on here. This has been a by-election that has been subdued locally. There’s almost a feel of bereavement - Ian Gibson was a very popular MP here.”

 

The result in full:
Chloe Smith (C) 13,591 (39.54%, +6.29%)

Chris Ostrowski (Lab) 6,243 (18.16%, -26.70%)

April Pond (LD) 4,803 (13.97%, -2.22%)

Glenn Tingle (UKIP) 4,068 (11.83%, +9.45%)

Rupert Read (Green) 3,350 (9.74%, +7.08%)

Craig Murray (Honest) 953 (2.77%)

Robert West (BNP) 941 (2.74%)

Bill Holden (Ind) 166 (0.48%, -0.17%)

Howling Laud (Loony) 144 (0.42%)

Anne Fryatt (NOTA) 59 (0.17%)

Thomas Burridge (Libertarian) 36 (0.10%)

Peter Baggs (Ind) 23 (0.07%)