Tories hold David Cameron’s seat but Lib Dems slash their majority

David Cameron - Image credit: Press Assocation

The Conservatives have held David Cameron's former Westminster seat in yesterday’s by-election – but saw their majority slashed by the Lib Dems.

Robert Courts was elected to succeed the former prime minister in the previously safe Conservative constituency of Witney in Oxfordshire.

But Cameron's majority of 25,000 was cut to less than 6,000 following a huge 19.3 per cent swing to the Lib Dems.

Labour, who came second at last year's general election, dropped to third on 5,765 votes, while Green candidate Larry Sanders – the brother of former US presidential hopeful Bernie – came third on 1,363, just nine votes ahead of UKIP's Dickie Bird.

Courts said Cameron, who quit in the wake of the EU referendum result, was "a great prime minister and a brilliant MP".

He said: "It did not matter who you were, where you lived or how you voted, if you had a local issue then he was always happy to help and represent local people – that is something I will strive to do and to continue in my time as member of parliament.

“Now we are going to move forward to build a country that works for everyone, our society should work for everyone, our economy should work for everyone and our democracy should work for everyone."

But Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said the result showed "the Lib Dems are back".

He said: "The result not only signals that the Liberal Democrats are back in the political big time and the return to three party politics, it is a clear rejection of the Conservative Brexit government’s plan to take Britain out of the single market.

"This was the tenth safest Tory seat in the country, yet the Conservatives were seriously rattled. They are riding high in the polls, but my sense is that has largely been because people did not feel there was a real opposition to the Conservative Brexit government.

“Witney proves there is now a real opposition, and that opposition is the Liberal Democrats."