Tribute to great council and winning team

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 5th May 2008

Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne said that excellent local election results in Eastleigh - which saw the Tories lose their last council seat in the Eastleigh constituency to the Lib Dems - were a tribute to borough leader Cllr Keith House and an outstanding council group that listened to local people.

Mr Huhne said that the further gains for local Lib Dems were the culmination of a trend that began with David Cameron's leadership: "All four Conservative councillors in the constituency when David Cameron became leader have now lost. If this is a revival for the Tories in the South, please let's have more of it".

Cllr Sue Ingram, a teacher at Hamble school, beat long-serving Cllr Bill Pepper in Hamble-le-Rice and Butlock's Heath by a margin of more than two hundred votes in what was once the safest blue ward in the area.

The Liberal Democrats won their second highest ever share of the vote in the Eastleigh constituency - 50.5 per cent - with a strong majority over the Conservatives with just 30.7 per cent and Labour at just 10.3 per cent.

"This is the first time since the Eastleigh constituency was formed in 1955 that there is no Conservative councillor at either county or borough level. The truth is that the Tories are out of touch with what local people want, as we have seen with the high council tax increases from Tory-controlled Hampshire county council compared with five years of below inflation rises from Lib Dem-controlled Eastleigh borough." said Mr Huhne.

"Cllr House and his team have put forward a range of winning policies such as the new cinema in Eastleigh and the opposition to over-development and the grabbing of greenfields put forward by the Tory county council in their gravel pits plans".