AS THE dust settles on a dramatic general election, Swindon’s re-elected Conservative MPs say the mandate given to them by voters will allow the party to finish what it started.

On Thursday, the Swindon electorate decided that Justin Tomlinson should be allowed to continue to represent North Swindon while Robert Buckland could continue in the south, both with significantly increased majorities.

Despite all the polls leading up to voting day suggesting it was a neck and neck battle, the Tories romped home, gaining a majority in the House of Commons.

The North Swindon MP says he feels in the end, the people wanted to choose what shape their government would take rather than rely on a series of agreements between the parties.

Mr Tomlinson said: “It is fantastic news to have such a decisive vote of confidence in what we have achieved and it will give us a real opportunity to build on the first five years as we will continue to push for a stronger economy and growth that will generate the tax revenue needed to improve vital public services and create additional jobs as we push for full employment.

“The polls showed there was not much between the parties, but within those polls, David Cameron was a long way ahead in who was seen as the most competent leader.

“I think there was so much talk of a coalition, whether it was Labour and SNP or Conservative and Liberal Democrat that in the end people resolved it was they who would decide who they wanted to be in charge so took control.”

Mr Tomlinson won a majority of almost 12,000 and secured more than half the votes in the election — the most any North Swindon MP has ever achieved.

“I am very very proud that my fellow residents of all political persuasions have put their faith in me and I am every bit as motivated as I was five years ago when first given the opportunity,” he said.

“There is no-one who will work harder than me to champion our fantastic town.”

The battle for South Swindon had been tipped to be one of the closest battles in the country but in the end he was able to increase his majority to nearly 6,000.

He put the result down to a combination of issues both in Swindon and across the country.

Mr Buckland said: “It was down to a combination of both local and national factors. Locally, both Justin and I, along with local councillors, have worked as hard as we can to deliver a good service to local residents and to not just turn up at election time but be around all the time.

“Nationally we have had a Conservative-led government which took over at a time of crisis, when we were just coming out of the deepest recession in our history. We had the largest peacetime deficit bequeathed to us by a careless Labour government.

“When you look at what has happened over the last five years, we halved the deficit as a share of national income, we’ve got the fastest growing economy in the G8, we have created the most new jobs on record and businesses are appearing. That hasn’t happened by accident, it’s happened because of the hard work of the British people and the hard work of a Conservative government.”