Eastleigh Heads for Another Close Race, Show Super Thursday Results

11.40.58am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 14th Jun 2004

Super Thursday saw excellent results for the Liberal Democrats in Eastleigh Borough

The Liberal Democrats were pleased with the local results in Eastleigh of the Super Thursday elections winning council seats from both Labour and Conservatives and sharply improving their votes in the European election.

'The borough wide count for the European Parliament elections show that the Liberal Democrats improved by 4 per cent of the vote - double the national average - in Eastleigh while the Conservatives fell back by 8 per cent of the vote compared with the european elections in 1999' said Chris Huhne MEP, prospective parliamentary candidate for Eastleigh in the general election.

'This shows that we have a better launching pad to win the Eastleigh parliamentary seat than last time, when the Conservatives led by 14 percentage points of the vote in 1999 just two years ahead of the general election. This time their lead was just 2 per cent of the vote. But it is clearly going to be another close race between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives with the UKIP as a wild card in the contest' said Mr Huhne.

The Eastleigh European result showed that UKIP went up from 11 per cent of the vote in 1999 to 23 per cent this year. Labour collapsed from 23 per cent of the vote to just 14 per cent. In the local elections, the Liberal Democrats won all but one of the contested wards within the parliamentary constituency of Eastleigh following a spectacular defeat of Labour in its Eastleigh South stronghold. The Conservatives won the remaining ward in Hamble.

Mr Huhne said that the results would be even better for the Liberal Democrats if the borough wards in the Romsey constituency - traditionally more Conservative wards - were excluded. 'But we are not complacent' said Mr Huhne. 'Whichever way you look at the figures, it is going to be neck and neck between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives here'.

European election results compared:

(% share of the vote)

1999 2004

Conservative 37 29

Liberal Democrat 23 27

Labour 23 14

UKIP 11 23

Greens 7 7

Notes: This compares the Eastleigh parliamentary result in 1999 with the Eastleigh borough result in 2004, as the counts were on a different basis this time. Therefore the 2004 result includes the better Conservative wards of Hiltingbury West and Hiltingbury East, as well as half of the Chandlers Ford West ward and all the Chandlers Ford East ward, that are in the Romsey not the Eastleigh parliamentary constituency.