Dominic Raab wins by landslide in Esher & Walton

May 7 2010 By Tamara Hughes

THE Conservatives emerged triumphant in a landslide victory at the Esher and Walton parliamentary candidate elections on Thursday night.

Dominic Raab the Tory candidate secured 32,134 of the votes, 10, 252 more than Ian Taylor in the 2005 election.

As the Mayor Councillor James Vickers called out the results after a long night of waiting a loud cheer sounded in Sandown Park's Esher Hall.

In his acceptance speech Mr Raab paid tribute to Ian Taylor as well as thanking his team his agent and his wife.

He said:"I will do my best to serve every family and to fight your corner in Westminster, there are difficult times ahead but with the post of a new conservative government we can answer the economic social and political challenges ahead."

Speaking to the Herald after his speech Mr Rabb said: "I feel great, it has been a long night but I am looking forward to working as hard as I can on all the issues important to this borough.

"My main priority is to help families through the recession."

Mr Raab's mother Jean Parkinson said: "We are very very proud of him."

While his stepfather Tom Parkinson added: "We are absolutely delighted, we know he will make a great leader."

His wife Erika said: "I'm feeling great, this was an amazing result, it was such a huge majority.

"I am pleased that the campaign trail is over now though and I can have him back."

Monster Raving Looney Party candidate Chinners who received 341 votes said: "On a serious note, that was an amazing majority, it has just blown me away.

"On a personal level I am down from last time round but I got more than 300 votes so I've won my bet with the Mayor.

"We bet that if I got more than 300 I would get £500 to donate to the mayor's charities."

Liberal Democrat candidate Lionel Blackman said: "It is interesting looking at the figures, there has been a significant increase in turnout and an increase in the conservative party vote.

"Have the sleeping Tories of Surrey that haven't been voting suddenly turned out for this election?

"Our vote did decline, we will be looking at how we lost those votes in the months to come."

The Liberal Democrats received 13,541 votes whereas in 2005 they received 14,155.

The turnout for Thursday's election was 72.7 per cent of the electorate compared to 2005 in which 62.5 per cent voted.