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Vote 2010: you win some, you lose some

By Channel 4 News

Updated on 07 May 2010

On a night when nothing was certain, Charles Clarke and Jacqui Smith were among the casualties, while Sarah Lucas and Zac Goldsmith came good. Sarah Smith reports.

Former home secretary Jacqui Smith, bowed out alongside Charles Clarke, Lembit Opik and Peter Robinson

Jacqui Smith - Labour
Former home secretary, Jacqui Smith, was ousted from her Redditch seat, with a 9.2 per cent swing to the Conservatives.

The scandal-hit former "Blair babe" faced criticism and later had to apologise for claiming her sister's house, where she rented a room, was her main residence and for her husband claiming two pornographic films on expenses.

She stood down from the cabinet last summer.

Charles Clarke - Labour
Another former home secretary lost his seat of Norwich South to the Liberal Democrats by a slim majority. Mr Clarke, who left cabinet in May 2006, has been one of the more vocal opponents of Gordon Brown during his time as prime minister.


Liberal Democrat Simon Wood took the seat with a majority of just 310, a four per cent swing from Labour to Lib Dem.

Political Editor Gary Gibbon writes: "Charles Clarke's extraordinary political odyssey is over. Under Neil Kinnock, many people thought he more or less ran the party. In some minds he never quite adapted to having the people he used to boss around running the party.

"Gordon Brown, he said, would lead the party to a ghastly defeat. But Labour lacked the nerve or inclination to follow his coup attempts (3 or 4 of them in total, depending on how you count them)."

Jim Knight - Labour
The work and pensions secretary became another high-profile casualty when he lost his seat of Dorset South with a 9.3 per cent swing to the Conservatives. Tory Richard Drax took the seat with a majority of 7,443.

Vera Baird - Labour
The former solicitor general Vera Baird lost her Redcar constituency to the Liberal Democrats by 13,741 to 18,955 - one of the biggest swings of the election.

Ms Baird's constituency has been hit by 1,600 job losses when the Corus steel plant in Redcar being mothballed earlier this year after an international consortium pulled out of a contract. Unions warned that thousands more workers depended on the plant.

Bill Rammell - Labour
The armed forces minister also lost his seat of Harlow to the Conservatives after a swing of 5.9 per cent. This was fifth on the Conservative list of target seats.

Shahid Malik - Labour
Another Labour minister, Shahid Malik, to have been also defeated in Dewsbury by the Conservatives, overturning a Labour majority of more than 4,500 with a swing of 5.84 per cent.

Tony McNulty - Labour
Former home office minister Tony McNulty lost his Harrow East seat to Tory Bob Blackman by just over three thousand votes.

He polled 18,032 against his the Tory's 21,435 votes.

Mr McNulty ahd been forced to repay £13,837 and apologise to the Commons after using his taxpayer-funded allowances to subsidise his parents living rent-free in his constituency home.

Lembit Opik - Liberal Democrat
In a shock result, Lembit Opik lost his Montgomery seat to Conservative Glyn Davies, who secured a massive 13 per cent swing to take it by just over a thousand votes.

Mr Davies, a former Tory member of the Welsh Assembly, won the mid Wales seat by 13,976 votes to Mr Opik's 12,792.

Mr Opik, who had been defending a majority of 7,048, said he was "disappointed" at the result. "I didn't expect the result and neither did my team.

Mr Opik, 45, had been MP for Montgomeryshire since 1997 is a high profile MP with a well reported private life. He has been engaged to the Cheeky Girl popstar Gabriela Irimia, and also had a long-term term relationship with the ITV weather presenter Sian Lloyd.

He had also repeatedly warned about the threat of asteroids hitting the earth.

Evan Harris - Liberal Democrat
Dr Evan Harris lost his seat of Oxford West and Abingdon to the Conservatives by just 176 votes - a major hit for the Lib Dems in a constituency with a large student population.

It was a swing of 6.9 per cent to the Tory candidate Nicola Blackwood. Dr Harris has held the seat since 1997.

It was a result that left many in the science community distraught.

Gail Cardew of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, said: "It's a sad day for the science community. We've lost someone who is a great advocate for scientific rigour and evidence-based policy."

Prof David Nutt former government drugs advisor said: "It's a sad day for science and government. Evan was such a great voice for rationality and evidence"


Peter Robinson - Democratic Unionist Party
Northern Ireland First Minister, Peter Robinson, has lost his Belfast East seat to the Alliance Party.

The result comes in the wake of a series of damaging revelations about both the DUP leader and his wife Iris, who dramatically quit politics in disgrace over allegations about her financial involvement with her teenage lover.

Mr Robinson will remain a member of the Northern Ireland assembly and first minister.

David Heathcoat-Amory - Conservative
Prominent Euro sceptic David Heathcoat-Amory lost his Wells constituency to the Liberal Democrat Tessa Munt by 800 votes.

The seat had been held by the Conservatives for 55 years.

Mr Heathcoat-Amory had faced strong criticism for claiming manure on his Westminster expenses.

George Galloway - Respect
The Respect leader and former Labour MP George Galloway lost to Labour's Jim Fitzpatrick in the east London constituency of Poplar and Limehouse.

Mr Galloway, who previously represented the neighbouring constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow had hoped to seize victory with the backing of a large proportion of the local Bengali community.

But the 55-year-old former Big Brother contestant found his popularity waning among the local electorate.

He polled just 8,160 of the votes cast.

Esther Rantzen - Independent
The That's Life presenter only won 1,872 votes, coming fourth in the Luton South contest. She originally announced her candidacy to stand against Labour MP Margaret Moran, who was heavily criticised for her second home claims. But Ms Moran subsequently said she would not fight the election and was then barred from standing by the party.

The Labour candidate who won the seat, 28-year-old Gavin Shuker, will be one of the youngest members of the new parliament.

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