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Conservatives
take over in Dartford

By Simon Tulett

Dartford has turned blue in emphatic style
with almost half the borough's voters opting for a switch to the
Conservatives.

In total 24,428 of the borough's voters - about 48.7 per cent -
plumped for Gareth Johnson as the borough went for change after 13
years of Labour.

The result gave Mr Johnson a majority of more than 10,000 votes
over second placed John Adams who replaced retiring MP Dr Howard
Stoate as Labour candidate and returned 13,800 votes - 27.5 per
cent.

The 40-year-old solicitor, of Church Road, Hartley, paid tribute
to Dr Stoate but added: "This is a new beginning for Dartford.

"I'm extremely proud to call this constituency my home and I'm
now proud to be it's Member of Parliament."

Mr Johnson narrowly lost out to Dr Stoate at the last general
election in 2005 by just 706 votes following a 2.9 per cent swing
from Labour to Conservative.

James Willis the Liberal Democrat candidate polled 7,361 votes -
a share of 14.6 per cent.

Election turn out in Dartford was 65 per cent - up slightly by
63.2 per cent from 2005.

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