It was a night for the blues when Conservative hopeful Jesse Norman snatched victory from the Lib Dems in Hereford and South to stand alongside fellow Tory winner Bill Wiggin, who reclaimed his North Herefordshire seat by a comfortable margin.
And the new 47-year-old MP has found himself swiftly pitched into a political ferment in Westminster.
As the week’s extraordinary events have continued to unfold in the wake of last Friday’s election result, Jesse Norman, polling 22,366 votes in a closely fought fight with Lib Dem candidate Sarah Carr who gained 19,885 votes, was called to London for a planned Parliamentary party on Monday night to welcome new MPs.
But instead he was part of intense party talks as crunch time loomed yesterday (Tuesday) when a decision was expected from Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg on proposals for forming a coalition government.
As the waiting game continued, Jesse left a meeting with the Tory party chairman Eric Pickles to give a report to the Journal. “It is absolutely on a knife-edge,” he said.
However, he insisted that his focus would be on his new constituency in Hereford and the south of the county, irrespective of the final result of this historic turn of events.
“Whatever the outcome, Herefordshire will be absolutely the only and overwhelming priority for me,” he said.
“The issue of under-funding in the county and its place in the national political picture is of the utmost importance.”
Jesse said the Tory’s decision on Monday to “go that extra mile” and call for a referendum on electoral reform during talks with the Lib Dems had been “overwhelmingly” supported in the national interest.
“We simply have to get a stable government and put in place a coalition which then will have a significant voice,” he said.
Describing the heightened atmosphere yesterday, he commented: “The mood is quite tense, quite expectant, with a tremendous feeling of responsibility.”
He went on: “There is a sense that if things do go the right way, we would have a national government that is pulling together. There are so many areas of overlap – schools, civil liberties, reducing the burden of taxation and the long-term economic crisis.”
His elation in the early hours of Friday was shared by Bill Wiggin, re-elected at Leominster with a comfortable 24,631 votes to Lib Dem Lucy Hurds’ 14,744.
