Sir.-It is an enormous privilege to be elected to serve as Basingstoke's Member of Parliament.

I am taking over from a well-respected and hard-working constituency MP. I realise that Andrew Hunter will be a tough act to follow.

I would like to thank all those who supported me during the election, and also those who did not. It is the very nature of our democracy that political differences are resolved by the ballot box.

All of the candidates were passionate about the issues at the forefront of the election. The debate was vigorous but always fair.

Now those differences have been voted on, I will work to represent all the people of Basingstoke to the best of my ability.

-Maria Miller, Member of Parliament for Basingstoke.

Sir.-I am most grateful to the voters of North West Hampshire for their expression of confidence in me last Thursday.

The Conservative majority increased to 13,264 and my share of the vote increased again.

I am, of course, disappointed that my party did not do better nationally, but I am heartened by the excellent results in Newbury and Basingstoke.

I look forward to working with Maria Miller and Richard Benyon on a range of matters that affect our three constituencies.

My sympathies are with Caroline Nokes for so narrowly losing Romsey.

I am particularly grateful to my enthusiastic team of supporters for their hard work during the campaign.

I pledge myself to working hard for all my constituents, regardless of political affiliation.

-Sir George Young, MP for North West Hampshire.

Sir.-On behalf of the North West Hampshire Labour Party, I would like to thank all those who voted Labour in the general election on May 5.

As a local party, we are delighted to have won a third term in office with a comfortable majority of 67 over all the other parties in Parliament.

This is an historic victory, as Labour has never before won three consecutive general elections.

After being in power for eight years now, it should not come as a surprise that the party would lose some ground, and it saw its share of the vote fall slightly from 25 to 21 per cent within this constituency.

However, we are pleased that the swing away from Labour here was less than the national average, and I believe this is testament to our candidate Michael Mumford and the hard work put in by many members and supporters across the constituency.

I am very grateful for their continued support.

I would also like to thank the local Conservative and UKIP associations for fighting a clean campaign in this constituency. Of course, we have disagreed on a number of issues, but I think there is at least mutual respect for our differing views.

On behalf of the North West Hampshire Labour Party, we forward our best wishes to Sir George Young as he represents this constituency in Parliament for a further term.

-Paul Goddard, Campaign agent for Labour Parliamentary candidate Michael Mumford, North West Hampshire.

Sir.-I would like to thank the residents of the Whitchurch and Clere Division for their support over the 12 years that I have spent representing the area on Hampshire County Council.

Thanks also to those who voted for me and helped me in the recent campaign, in which the Conservative candidate gained a narrow majority this time.

-John Wall, Liberal Democrat, London Street, Whitchurch.