SIR Michael Lord today heralded his win in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich as "a substantial victory" after doubling his majority in the seat.The Conservative veteran of six general elections pledged more of the same for the seat on hearing that he secured a majority of 7,856, as voters in the Tory stronghold emphatically re-elected him.

SIR Michael Lord today heralded his win in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich as "a substantial victory" after doubling his majority in the seat.

The Conservative veteran of six general elections pledged more of the same for the seat on hearing that he secured a majority of 7,856, as voters in the Tory stronghold emphatically re-elected him.

Sir Michael said: "I shall continue to do what I have always done, which is serve everybody whatever their political interests.

"It's a huge honour to be the member of parliament again.

"I'm delighted. It's a substantial victory."

Sir Michael has been MP for Central Suffolk since 1983 and has been a deputy speaker of the House of Commons in the last two parliaments.

He said his victory, and the increase in his majority, was largely due to a loss of trust in Labour.

"The key issue on the doorstep without any doubt was trust in the government," he said.

"Trust was the most important thing."

Despite finishing behind the Tories and Labour for the third consecutive election the Liberal Democrats said there were positives in the result.

Mr Houseley said: "Our vote is substantially up.

"We've got a lot to look forward to over the next four years as we fight this seat again.

"During this campaign we showed we are the real alternative to this Labour government."

Labour, which now faces the task of turning around a significantly increased Conservative majority in five years, put its loss down to a poor result in the rural areas of the Central Suffolk seat.

Mr Macdonald said: "Certainly in the urban areas I feel we have done as well as we could have expected to do but I think we have lost out in the country."

The Greens secured fewest votes in the seat but insisted in future years they would become a bigger force in British politics.

Professor Wolfe said: "We may have come last in terms of numbers of votes but compared to last time it's a huge increase.

"We are really trying to get the ideas into people's minds because the major parties are just not coming clean on the seriousness of the situation.

"By the time another four years comes around people will be seriously worried."