Jo Crotty and the Liberal Democrats increase vote in South Staffordshire General Election

11.48.46am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 24th Jun 2005

Dr. Jo Crotty, Liberal Democrat candidate in the South Staffordshire General Election

Dr. Jo Crotty and the Liberal Democrats increased their share of the vote in yesterday's General Election from 11.6% to 13.8%. Sir Patrick Cormack held the seat, Labour's share of the vote almost halved.

Dr. Crotty congratulated Sir Patrick by saying "I congratulate Sir Patrick on his re-election and wish him well over the coming Parliament. Sir Patrick is incredibly popular locally as can be seen in this result. It was a victory for Sir Patrick but not for the Conservatives who were not mentioned on the literature, it was also a disastrous result for Labour losing half their vote share."

On her own result Dr. Crotty said "I am delighted to have increased the share of the vote for the Liberal Democrats and have enjoyed the campaign although it came about in such sad circumstances."

Commenting on the result, Liberal Democrat chief executive Lord Rennard said: "Liberal Democrats are pleased to have increased our share of the vote. Labour's vote has fallen considerably. Once again it is clear that disillusioned former Labour voters are turning to the Liberal Democrats and not to the Conservatives."

The result in full was as follows:

Sir Patrick Cormack - Conservative - 13,343 votes (52.05% +1.56%)

Paul Kalinauckas - Labour - 4,496 votes (17.54% -16.63%)

Dr. Jo Crotty - Liberal Democrat - 3,540 votes (13.81% +2.21%)

Malcolm Hurst - UKIP - 2,675 votes (10.43% +6.69%)

Garry Bushell - English Democrat - 643 votes (2.51%)

Kate Spohrer - Green - 437 votes (1.70%)

Adrian Davies - Freedom Party - 434 votes (1.69%)

Rev David Braid - Clause 28, Christian Democrat - 67 votes (0.26%)

Majority 8,847 votes (34.51%)

9.10% swing Lab to Con

Turnout 25,635 votes (37.28% -23.04%)

There was also a County Council re-run in Kinver County Division, the result was:

Brain Edwards - Conservative - 2,403 votes - 62.5%

Robert Simmons - Liberal Democrat - 1,051 votes 27.4%

Kevin McElduff - Labour - 388 votes, 10.1%