Tories fight off Labour challenge in two target Sussex seats

In Crawley, where Labour was hoping to snatch back the seat it lost in 2010, Tory Henry Smith delivered a commanding win to return as MP. increasing his gap to Chris Oxlade from 5,926 votes to 6,526.

While UKIP’s number of votes increased fivefold, the votes the Lib Dems polled was slashed to around a fifth of its 2010 level.

Another Labour target was Hastings and Rye, which they lost in 2010, but Tory Amber Rudd also increased her majority from 1,993 votes to 4,796.

The Lib Dems fell into fifth place behind the Greens, who did not even field a candidate in Hastings and Rye in 2010, while UKIP moved up into third place.

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