CONSERVATIVE Iain Duncan Smith stormed to victory in Chingford and Woodford Green.

The incumbent MP held onto his seat comfortably, increasing his majority to 22,743 - 2,000 votes more than in the last General Election in 2005.

Mr Duncan Smith paid tribute to his constituents, thanking them for their support over the years.

He said: “The people of Chingford and Woodford Green have been very supportive to me over the years, in difficult times and good times, so it is a privilege to be representing them.

“It is an improvement, a strengthened majority, so I'm pleased.

“There was a big turnout as well, which is also pleasing.”

Voters turned out in their thousands, with turnout up four per cent on 2005 to 67 per cent.

Despite the relatively small increase, the high turnout was used to explain a late announcement of the result, with candidates waiting for more than nine hours before the outcome was finally revealed at about 7.15am.

Mr Duncan Smith referred to the late announcement in his acceptance speech, saying it had been a “long night” and thanking the count staff for their efforts.

Labour held onto their second-place position, with candidate Cath Arakelian getting 9,780 votes.

She said: “I'm incredibly proud of the team and I'm very pleased the Labour vote held up and we maintained our position as the opposition in Chingford.

Dr Geoff Seeff, standing for the Liberal Democrats received 7,242 votes – a slight gain for the party on the 2005 election.

But he said he was “disappointed” they hadn't gained more support.

“We put in a lot of hard work and the vote is much as it was on the previous occasion, so I'm very disappointed,” he said.

Julian Leppert, for the British National Party, received 1,288 votes; Nick Jones, UK Independence Party, received 1,133 votes, and Lucy Craig for the Green Party got 650 votes.

Independents None of the Above and Barry White received 202 and 68 votes respectively.

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