BICYCLING baronet Sir George Young won a third term as MP for North West Hampshire at the general election and increased his majority by more than 1,000 votes - from 12,009 to 13,264.

The delighted Conservative, a former Cabinet minister, thanked his campaign team at the count, held at Andover Leisure Centre, and pledged to continue to work hard for his constituents.

He said: "It is superb to be re-elected. My supporters have done a tremendous job." He said the secret to his success was "hard work, a wonderful team and a superb wife".

But along with his Labour opponent Michael Mumford, he levelled criticism at the "imaginative" campaign literature published by the Liberal Democrats in support of candidate Martin Tod.

Sir George said: "If I was Mick Mumford, I would be annoyed at the way I was misrepresented. The Liberal Democrats have stretched the statistics to the limit."

Mr Mumford said: "The Conservatives have fought a very clean campaign as we have, but the Liberal Democrats have fought a very dishonest campaign. Misleading at best, but downright dishonest at worst."

However, Mr Tod denied using any misleading statistics. With the Liberal Democrats beating Labour to second place, Mr Tod was very pleased with the final result.

He said: "I am happy with second place. It would have been astonishing to beat Sir George Young."

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats increased their number of votes, but Labour's share of the vote was almost five per cent down on the 2001 result.

There was a slight increase in turnout at this year's election, with a rise to 64.3 per cent of the electorate voting compared with a 63.7 per cent turnout figure at the 2001 election.

UKIP candidate Peter Sumner said he was somewhat disappointed, but added: "I will go back into my retirement now, playing golf and enjoying my painting."

Sir George took just over 50 per cent of the total vote and spoke of his delight that in the neighbouring constituency of Newbury, Conservative candidate Richard Benyon had won the seat from the Liberal Democrats.

He said: "I am delighted that Richard won. I have been working very closely with him throughout the campaign and I'm looking forward to working with him in the future."

Sir George was back at Andover Leisure Centre on Friday to support the Conservative candidates in the county council elections.