Andrew Dismore ousted!

Andrew Dismore was a big burden on the British-Turkish relations.

Türk düşmanı Andrew Dismore’u İngiliz halkı defetti…

—

Andrew Dismore ousted by 106 votes

Labour’s Andrew Dismore has lost his Hendon seat to the Conservative Party candidate, Matthew Offord, by 106 votes following a recount.

Mr Dismore pulled in 19 529 or 42.1% of the overall vote, compared to Mr Offord’s 19 635 votes – 42.3% of the votes.

Mr Dismore had been caught up in the expenses scandal, and was accused of “flipping” his second home designation.

, 07 May 2010

Election result: Hendon

By Marcus Dysch

Conservative candidate Matthew Offord has ousted Labour’s Andrew Dismore to win the Hendon constituency in one of the country’s closest election battles.

Mr Offord, a former deputy leader of Barnet Council, won by just 106 votes following a recount.

He received 19,635 votes to Mr Dismore’s 19,529.

The result represented a swing of 5.2 per cent to the Tories from Labour.

[…]

Mr Dismore, who had held the seat since 1997, was understandably disappointed by the result. In his farewell speech he accused Mr Offord of a “dirty” campaign.

He had worked tirelessly for Jewish and Israeli causes but was mired by expenses allegations in the past 12 months.

[…]

, May 7, 2010

Ousted Labour MP Andrew Dismore makes vitriolic speech

Alex Hayes

DEFEATED Labour candidate Andrew Dismore accused his Conservative opponent of “mud-slinging” during a vitriolic speech after results were announced.

Mr Dismore lost the key marginal seat by just 106 votes following a recount, with the result announced just after 9am after a mammoth count.

In the address he accused newly elected Matthew Offord of “name calling” and accused him of being disrespectful towards his long-term partner.

He said: “This has not been a clean fight, in my view it’s been a pretty dirty campaign. It’s my eighth public election and I have never seen such a barrage of personal slurs and lies in this campaign.

“I’m humbled by the fact so many of my fellow residents voted for me. The election result was a close one, only by a whisker in a seat the Conservatives thought they would take by a huge margin.

“People voted for me because they appreciated the work I’ve done for them and their communities.”

He warned the other candidates the precarious hung Parliament could see another election called in the next few months.

, May 7, 2010

Andrew Dismore may make legal challenge to Hendon result

Alex Hayes

ANDREW Dismore, who lost his Hendon seat by just 106 votes this morning, has not ruled out the possibility of a legal challenge over the staging of the vote.

The Labour candidate lost after a recount of votes to Conservative Matthew Offord, but accused the Tory man of dirty tricks during the election campaign in his losers speech.

Mr Offord said he was not ruling out legal action over problems with postal votes not arriving, queues at polling stations making people turn away and voters being given wrong information on which station to use.

He said: “I have to speak to lawyers before I make any decisions on this. Yesterday there were problems of lots of people not having their postal votes.

“I also saw a lot of people leaving big queues at polling stations because there were not enough staff on to cope with it, so in these areas those votes could have made all the difference.

“There are also some things he (Mr Offord) was writing on his leaflets I will refer to lawyers as well.”

The former barrister, who took control of the seat in 1997 added: “I don’t think there was anything me or my team could have done. If we had had more support in door knocking I think we could have won.

“The Conservatives had the Ashcroft funded billboards all over the borough and we just couldn’t compete with that sort of money.”

, May 7 2010