CONSERVATIVE candidate Maria Miller has retained her seat in Basingstoke with a majority of over 11,000 votes.

Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane, Cllr Roger Gardiner, announced that the 51-year-old had retained her seat for the second time and will enjoy another five years as the town's MP.

The result came in shortly after 5am with a massive roar following from members of the Basingstoke Conservative Party and Maria Miller's campaign team and family.

Mrs Miller thanked everyone that has helped her during her campaign.

She told The Gazette: "It is a tremendous honour to be relected as MP for Basingstoke and I will do everything I can to make sure that Basingstoke is an even better place to live."

When asked by The Gazette if her relection put a line under the expenses scandal which forced her to resign from her position at the heart of the Government as Culture Secretary, she said: "That is not an issue that came up in the hustings or the campaign because lots of people wanted a positive campaign focus on the future of Basingstoke and that is what I have done.

"The result is an indication that people don't want to have negative campaigning."

Labour hopeful Dr Paul Harvey came second in the contest for the Basingstoke seat with 14,706 votes.

It follows a big hit for the Labour Party nationally, and they are not expected to be the largest seat in Parliament.

Basingstoke Gazette:

UKIP's Alan Stone came third with 8,290 votes, Lib Dem candidate Janice Spalding ended fourth with 3,919 seats and Independent candidate Omar Selim came in last place with 392 votes.

Paul Harvey told The Gazette: "It wasn't the result we were hoping for. We have got the council elections tomorrow and we will carry on.

"There are so many issues that residents have raised with me in this campaignthat they care about and I care about and I will carry on - it doesn't stop."

The turnout at yesterday's General Election was the same turnout as in 2010, with 66.7 per cent of people voting between 7am and 10pm.

Labour and UKIP benefitted from a Lib Dem backlash with the Conservatives losing two per cent of votes from the 2010 election.

The Labour party gained 7.3 per cent and UKIP gained a respectable 11.5 per cent, while the Liberal Democrats in Basingstoke lost 17.1 per cent of the vote they got at the last General Election in 2010.