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Wantage Constituency

RESULT: Conservative retained

Alan Armitage (Lib Dem) 15,737

Steven Mitchell (Lab) 7,855

Jacqueline Jones (UKIP) 2,421

Adam Twine (Green) 1,044

Turnout: 71.5 per cent

2005: Conservative (from Labour)

2005 majority: 8,017

2005 turnout: 68%

THE Wantage constituency has returned Conservative MPs ever since it was created in 1983.

The only brief blip in its true blue record came in 2005, when its pro-European MP Robert Jackson switched to the Labour Party months before he left Parliament.

Voters harboured no such doubts, and returned his Tory successor Ed Vaizey with an 8,039 majority and 43 per cent of the vote.

Five years ago, his opposition was split between second place Liberal Democrats, who control Vale of White Horse District Council, and Labour, who have strong pockets of support in Didcot.

Mr Vaizey, who is a friend of David Cameron and member of the modernising “Notting Hill set”, has a high national media profile and a front bench post as shadow arts minister, but has not always avoided controversy.

Last month, he was slapped down by party bosses when tabloids seized on comments in TV documentary that appeared to suggest David Cameron’s wife Samantha may have voted Labour in the past.

More seriously, he was forced to apologise to his constituents last year and repay £2,000, after claiming for luxury furniture, including a £300 upholstered library chair from a London antiques shop, in his second home expenses.

His Labour challenger Steven Mitchell, of St Albans, says he has handed Mr Vaizey copies of the Argos catalogue to remind him how much normal furniture costs.

Despite the controversy, Mr Vaizey says he has been a good constituency MP over the last five years, campaigning against regional housing targets, the proposed Abingdon reservoir and Sutton Courtenay incinerator, and trying to secure the reopening of the Wantage and Grove train station.

Meanwhile county councillor Alan Armitage is hoping that a Liberal Democrat surge across the country, spearheaded by the boost to leader Nick Clegg’s profile in the three TV debates, could cause an upset in the solidly Tory seat.

Housing is a major issue across the constituency.

Grove was already due have 2,500 homes built on the airfield before the district council decided to allocate another 1,500 to Charlton in January.

Six thousand new homes are to be built in Didcot over the next 20 years, while in Wallingford, residents say the proposed 750 new houses will ruin the town’s character and blight local roads.

Meanwhile all the parties have spoken out against Thames Water’s proposed £1bn reservoir on farmland between Steventon, East Hanney and Drayton.

A public inquiry is due to start by June 21.

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