Labour all over the place in the South

We've just heard that John Denham, Labour's most senior politician in the South, has squeaked back in Southampton.
It should have been the safest seat - with a 9,000 majority - so what cost him so many votes? Boundary changes play a part, but his colleague Alan Whitehead took a pasting too, and fellow cabinet minister Jim Knight paid a price for a high profile in this government.
Compare that result with Oxford East, where Lib Dems really thought they'd beaten another Labour top gun - Andrew Smith.
He won that 4,000 majority with a strategy of door-to-door campaigning, positively rejecting media interviews for the best part of three years.

Welcome to the hustings! I'm Peter Henley, the BBC's political reporter in the south of England. From parish councils in Sussex, to European politics in Oxford, this is the blog for you.
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