STEVE Brine romped to victory in Winchester and Chandler's Ford increasing his majority to 16,914.

The Conservative candidate secured a whopping 30,425 votes, easily seeing off Lib Dem Jackie Porter who took 13,511 votes.

When the result was announced at 7.50am his weary supporters were jubilant that their man had turned a marginal seat into one of the safest in the South.

In his victory speech in the cavernous River Park Leisure Centre, Mr Brine thanked his many supporters and said "It's been a very long campaign. Fittingly, it's been a very long night!"

His triumph was not a surprise although the scale clearly was. Yesterday the bookies were offering odds of ten to one on that Mr Brine would triumph.

It means that for the first time since the 1980s Winchester is once again a safe Conservative seat.

For Mrs Porter the result was a big disappointment. But the writing was on the wall from early on. As early as 1.45am she said she needed a "miracle" to win.

The three other parties took comfort in increasing their vote. Mark Chaloner for Labour won 4,613 votes, an increase of about a third on 2010.

Also happy was Martin Lyon for UKIP who polled 4,122, a four-fold increase on last time.

Michael Wilks, for the Greens, attracted a respectable 2,645 votes. The turnout was 74.8 per cent, only slightly down on 76 per cent in 2010.