Labour lose Norwich South
The story of the night… a nail-biting, drawn out contest which resulted in one of the biggest Lib Dem wins of the election, in terms of unseating a Labour big-hitter. The result came down to just 310 votes, pushing Charles Clarke into second place. Simon Wright is now the new MP for Norwich south.
Billed as a four way marginal, it was always going to be close. After a lot of checking and re-checking, the announcement finally came just before 5 am. Simon Wright won the seat for the Liberal Democrats ahead of the former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who’s been the Labour MP here for the past 13 years. The Liberal Democrats won 13,650 votes to Labour’s 13,960. Speaking after the result, Simon Wright said this is one of the most significant wins of the night:
Charles Clarke was gracious in his defeat, adding he was sad not to be able to continue to represent Norwich South. He said: ”I believe tremendous things have been done under Labour. It has been of great pride to me to fight for the city of Norwich and I am very proud at what I have achieved.”
The other surprise was the Greens who came fourth behind the Conservatives. The Greens had hoped to win this seat, their second target behind Brighton, where they made history by electing Britain’s first Green MP. The Greens doubled their share of the vote to nearly 15%, which their candidate, Adrian Ramsay says this is proof that the Greens could win here in the future:
This morning’s result gives us Norfolk’s second Lib Dem MP. Norman Lamb (Norfolk North, Lib Dem) arrived to congratulate Simon Wright shortly after the result was announced. Against a backdrop of a possible hung Parliament, the Lib Dems could have a crucial role to play in the coming days, depending on the final outcome of the election.
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