BASINGSTOKE has turned blue with a thumping victory in both the General Election and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council elections.

Maria Miller stormed to victory in her bid to retain her role as Basingstoke’s MP with a majority of over 11,000 votes following the declaration by the borough’s Returning Officer, Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane Cllr Roger Gardiner, shortly after 5am this morning.

Mrs Miller thanked everyone that had helped her during her campaign, telling The Gazette: “It is a tremendous honour to be re-elected as MP for Basingstoke and I will do everything I can to make sure that Basingstoke is an even better place to live."

Labour hopeful Dr Paul Harvey came second in the contest for the Basingstoke seat with 14,706 votes, UKIP candidate Alan Stone came third with 8,290 votes, Lib Dem candidate Janice Spalding ended fourth with 3,919 seats and Independent candidates Omar Selim clinched 392 votes.

And the theme continued later on this morning after counting for the borough council elections began at the Hampshire Court Hotel shortly after 10.30am.

Basingstoke Gazette:

The Conservatives are now the largest group on the borough council with 32 seats, Labour trail with 17 seats, the Liberal Democrats group has seven seats and there are now four Independent candidates.

The biggest shock of the afternoon came when longstanding Independent councillor, and former Mayor, Martin Biermann lost his Chineham seat to Conservative candidate Joyce Bowyer who described Biermann as a “local legend”.

Biermann told The Gazette: “I can’t say anything more than I am pretty disappointed and throughout my campaign, I had plenty of people who said I couldn’t possibly lose because of my association with Chineham.

“It was going to be my last shot and whether I will give it another go, I couldn’t say at the moment.”

Another shock was delivered in the Brighton Hill North ward where Cllr Rob Golding’s daughter Hannah clinched the seat ahead of Labour candidate Janet Westbrook.

An emotional Hannah told The Gazette: “It is amazing and I am really excited. I can’t wait to get stuck in and represent the people of Brighton Hill and I am really pleased they voted for me.”

Basingstoke Gazette:

Among other winners this afternoon, Clive Pinder scooped the Basing ward for the party and Simon Bound was elected as the new councillor for the Rooksdown ward.

Council leader, Cllr Clive Sanders, told The Gazette: “It is a tremendous performance and it is a great performance locally and nationally. It will be nice to have a majority again and it gives more certainty to what we do.”

Labour still have 17 councillors after they retained the South Ham and Norden ward and won the Overton, Laverstoke and Steventon seat from the Lib Dems.

Group leader Cllr Laura James said: “I am delighted that we won Overton – that is a great result but we are exceptionally disappointed with the Brighton Hill North Result and Janet has put a lot of hard work into it.”

The Liberal Democrats group finished with seven seats after the group retained the Eastrop and Grove wards but lost out to Labour in Overton.

Following Martin Biermann’s defeat and Stephen West’s defeat to the Tories in the Tadley Central ward, there are now four Independent councillors on the borough council.

For more coverage of the key seats in the local elections and the Basingstoke, North West Hampshire and North East Hampshire Parliamentary seats, pick up your copy of The Gazette on sale on Thursday.