Greg Hands retained his Chelsea and Fulham seat in another Conservative victory with a resounding 39.8% majority.
The deputy Chief Whip of the 2010 coalition government trounced Labour candidate Alexandra Sanderson with 25,322 votes over 9,300 and took the opportunity in his victory speech to stick the political knife in.
With a majority increase of 2.5% to 16,022, the heavy defeat followed trends across the country in a nightmare day for the Labour party.
“There now has to be some serious soul searching by the Labour Party, particularly by Hammersmith and Fulham who were Ed Miliband’s earliest supporters,” he said.
The dig was directed at last year’s swing victory for Labour in the Hammersmith and Fulham local elections, a source of great embarrassment for the Tories, who previously considered it a ‘flagship’ council.
But the brag only served to stoke the fire that erupted thirty minutes earlier, when the two parties clashed over the Hammersmith results, which Labour held by 6,518 votes.
Conservatives hurled angry barbs at Labour for the planned closure of Charing Cross Hospital, brandishing them liars for their failure to disclose the truth.
When it came to Mr Hands’ seat, however, there was less vexation towards the ultra-safe seat, which saw a 63.6% turnout.
Some may have viewed Hands’ relatively late appearance at Hammersmith Town Hall for the count as a sign of complacency but the politician was busy supporting his peers from Conservative Campaign HQ.
Mr Hands said: “The British people have shown their confidence in David Cameron, the Conservatives and our long term economic plan.”
The American-born politician used his winner’s speech to acknowledge the Tory victory across the country, with seat numbers, votes and vote share all up.
He added: “We’ve seen a positive endorsement of the Conservative agenda of hope, security and prosperity and a decisive rejection of the politics of envy, the mansion tax, increased corporate taxes, higher income tax and all other things that will damage our local area so badly.
“We have also had a rejection of returning politics to the 1970s: rail nationalisation, price fixing and so-called guaranteed jobs, that agenda has been decisively rejected tonight as it was in 1979.”
Ms Sanderson, however, was not phased when questioned on the matter.
“I don’t allow myself to get drawn into petty little fights,” the young politician said.
She explained her pride to have bucked the national trend and increased the Labour vote share in the constituency.
“It’s testament to how popular Labour has become locally since last May, when we were elected to Hammersmith and Fulham council,” she added.
