New Eastleigh MP's pledge to voters (From Daily Echo)

Thornton: I'll be a hard working constituency MP

3:18am Friday 1st March 2013 in News

Mike Thornton used his first speech as Eastleigh MP to pledge to become a "hard working constituency MP".

The triumphant Liberal Democrat's every sentence was cheered by a jubilant crowd of supporters waving orange placards.

He thanked his wife Peta saying that he would not be on the stage delivering his victory speech were it not for her support.

And he named each and every major community in Eastleigh borough as he thanked voters for backing him and allowing him to represent them in parliament.

Mr Thornton called Eastleigh a "beautiful part of the country" and paid tribute to rival candidates for their "reasonable and well mannered campaign."

After hearing loud cries of "we like Mike" he heaped praise on his supporters who he said had come from all over the country to help during his three week campaign in what he described as a "tremendous boost".

He told the crowd: "We can do it, we have done it and we will do it again."

He said he would focus on being a hard working constituency MP and added:"it is strong signal of support for Nick Clegg and a huge boost to his mission in government."

"The people of Eastleigh recognise that here the Liberal Democrats have always had a superb record of delivery.

"We have always listened to what people want and always made sure we did a good job extremely well."

• Meet the new MP - click here
• For all the drama of polling day - click here