UK Conservative party wins last seat in 2010 general election

Friday, May 28, 2010

The Conservative Party has won the last seat of the 2010 general election, taking the seat of Thirsk and Malton with a majority of over 11,000. Voting in the constituency had been delayed by the death of the United Kingdom Independence Party candidate in the run-up to the original polling date of May 6, 2010.

The new MP, Anne McIntosh, took over 52% of the vote, with the Liberal Democrats – partners with the Conservatives in the coalition government – in second place. Despite the relationship between the parties in government, the Liberal Democrat candidate Howard Keal had promised that there would be a "full-on fight" for the seat. The Labour Party came third, although the fall in its share of the vote was described by political opponents as "catastrophic" for the party.

McIntosh, formerly MP for the Vale of York constituency, said that she was "delighted", adding that it was a "very exciting time" in politics. Keal said that he was "grateful and humbled" for the support he had been given. Jonathan Roberts, the Labour Party candidate, said that it was "an extraordinary election, undertaken in extraordinary circumstances in an extraordinary constituency."

This was the first election held for the constituency, which was formed from parts of two former Conservative-held seats (Ryedale and Vale of York). The Conservatives' share of the vote (compared to notional figures for the new constituency based on the 2005 election results) rose by 0.2%, with the Liberal Democrats up 5% and the Labour Party down 11.6%.

Results

Anne McIntosh (Conservative) – 20,167 (52.87%)
Howard Keal (Liberal Democrat) – 8,886 (23.30%)
Jonathan Roberts (Labour) – 5,169 (13.55%)
Toby Horton (UKIP) – 2,502 (6.56%)
John Clark (Liberal) – 1,418 (3.72%)
Total votes: 38,142 (turnout of 50.3%)

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

"Tories win final election seat of Thirsk and Malton" — BBC News Online, May 28, 2010
Nick Collins. "Tories win final general election seat in Thirsk and Malton" — The Daily Telegraph, May 28, 2010

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License