General Election 2010

This year's General Election took place on Thursday 6th May.

Mark Prisk has been re-elected to Parliament, increasing his share of the vote by 3.3%, with the Liberal Democrats up from 18.4% to 26%.

Parliament was dissolved on Monday 12th April and campaigning began in earnest. There were seven prospective candidates for the constituency of Hertford and Stortford.

Prospective Candidates

Mark Prisk (Con)

Mark Prisk has been the MP for Hertford and Stortford since 2001. He was born in June 1962 in Cornwall and was educated at Truro School. He went on to the University of Reading, where he graduated in 1983, with a BSc (Hons) in Land Management. A Conservative Party member for over 20 years, he stood twice for Parliament in 1992 and 1997 (in other constituencies). Mark Prisk is presently Vice President of the First Defence policy group. In November 2002, Mark was appointed Shadow Financial Secretary. In November 2003, he became Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs. In November 2004, he became an Opposition Whip. Since December 2005, he has been Shadow Minister for Business & Enterprise.

Mark Prisk can be followed on Twitter at twitter.com/Mark_Prisk

Steve Terry (Lab)

Steve Terry is Chair of Walthamstow Labour party and a UNISON official.

Andrew Lewin (LibDem)

Born and raised in Hertfordshire, Andrew promises to campaign on the economy, education and the environment, and to be involved with the "diverse range" of issues in his local area.

David Sodey (UKIP)

David Sodey was born in 1947 and married with one daughter and two granddaughters, He served in the Royal Air Force for 16 years seeing service in the Middle and Far East.

He subsequently ran restaurants, bars and clubs all over the UK and operated various contracts in the Middle East before settling in Hertfordshire in 1964.

Loucas Xenophontos (Independent)

Loucas Xenophontos lives in Queens Road, Hertford and is married with 2 children at Simon Balle School where he is a governor. He is also a governor at Morgans primary school. Loucas is an accountant who works as Head of Business Operations at BT's international unit. He has never been politically active before but decided to get involved as a local independent that will represent his community instead of a political party and try to foster cross party co-operation.

Roy Harris (BNP)

Roy Harris and his wife have lived in East Hertfordshire for 28 years, having moved from Brixton following the riots. He has been treasurer of his local parochial church for the last 19 years and was also a school govenor for 10 years.

Martin Adams (Independent)

Martin was born in 1963 and works in the IT industry. He has been a member of both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Parties, leaving after the MPs expences scandal.

More information about the candidates views and pledges can be found on The Hertfordshire Mercury's website: Hertford and Stortford candidates - their election pledges.

Key Swing Figures

There are four key swing figures to bear in mind for this general election.

A 1.6% swing to the Conservatives would lose Labour their majority.

A 4.3% swing to the Conservatives would make them the largest party in a hung parliament.

A 6.9% swing would give the Conservatives an overall majority. This has only ever been exceeded once - by Labour in the 1997 election.

A 7.6% swing would give the Tories a working majority of 20.

To get a working majority of 20, the Tories would need a 40% share of the vote

2010 Election Result

Conservative Majority: 15,437   Turnout: 70.6%

2005 Election Result

Conservative Majority: 13,097   Turnout: 67.7%

2001 Election Result

Conservative Majority: 5603   Turnout: 62.8%

1997 Election Result

Conservative Majority: 6885   Turnout: 76.0%

1992 Election Result

Conservative Majority: 20,210   Turnout: 77.1%

1987 Election Result

Conservative Majority: 17,140   Turnout: 77.7%