SCARBOROUGH AND WHITBY: Labour's vote swept away at seaside

Mr Goodwill took the seat back in 2005 from Labour's Lawrie Quinn with a lead of 1,300 votes. But this time around, Labour's support collapsed from more than 18,000 to less than 13,000, leaving the Tories with a comfortable 8,130 majority.

Until Tony Blair swept to power, the seat had always been regarded as True Blue. But although Labour's Annajoy David fought a hard campaign, the odds were stacked against her from the start.

Eyebrows were raised when international businesswoman Miss David, who originally hailed from Essex, was chosen to fight the seat. There were also relatively few Labour councillors still left on Scarborough Council to help her in her campaign.

A roar of applause and whoops of delight were heard in Scarborough's Sports Hall as Mr Goodwill's landslide victory of 21,108 was announced around 3am.

It was the Tory candidate's second win in the seat. Five years ago he grabbed it back from Mr Quinn despite a high-profile Labour campaign to retain what was then still a key marginal.

Miss David trailed in second with 12,978 votes, narrowly beating Lib Dem Tania Exley-Moore into third place. Ms Exley-Moore increased her party's share of the vote from under 8,000 to 11,093.

The BNP's Trisha Scott polled 1,445 votes, only slightly behind Michael John James, of the UK Independence Party, whose share of the ballots was 1,484.

Dilys Vine Cluer, for the Green Party, polled 734. Scarborough councillor Peter Popple, standing as an independent, came second to bottom with 329. Juliet Marie Boddington, for the Alliance for Green Socialism, scraped 111. The turnout for the constituency was 65.37 per cent.