One of the first people to congratulate the new Labour MP for Hove, Peter Kyle, was the man who ran him a close second, the Conservative candidate Graham Cox.
Mr Cox was quick to shake his rival’s hand as the result was declared at the count at the Brighton Centre this morning (Friday 8 May).
And shortly afterwards Mr Cox uploaded a post to his Facebook page which said: “Congratulations to Peter Kyle, the new MP for Hove. I am sure he will make an excellent representative in Westminster.
“Thank you to everyone who voted for me. Thank you for all the kind messages.
“Thank you in particular to Lettie (Egan) and Shaun (Gunner) who have worked so hard over the last nine months.
“We managed to increase the Conservative vote in Hove by a significant amount – but Peter managed to increase the Labour vote by even more and deserved his win.
“I am going to take a break for a few days but will reply to all the messages, emails, tweets and texts when I get back.
“Best of luck to the Geoffrey (Theobald) and the local team on Saturday.”
After Mr Kyle made his victory speech, Mr Cox, who served as Hove’s police chief and, more recently, as a member of Brighton and Hove City Council, briefly spelt out his plans.
He said that he was looking forward to watching some cricket at the County Ground.
