Richard Harrington, the former chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel, has ended Labour’s 13-year reign in Watford.

Mr Harrington received 19,291 votes, a 34.9 per cent share, narrowly beating Liberal Democrat candidate, Sal Brinton who received 17,866 votes.

The seat was held by Labour’s justice minister Claire Ward since 1997, who this time received 14,750 votes.

Mr Harrington said: “I was very pleased to win because it was a lot of hard work.

“My opponents very much tried to bring up the Israel issue and use it against me but the electorate realised I’m a very moderate person in my views and it was irrelevant to the Watford electorate.”

All the results from the key constituencies on our Election 2010 page