VOTERS in Swindon performed a dramatic U-turn last night as both the town's seats went to the Tories.

Justin Tomlinson swung to a comfortable lead in the North and Robert Buckland had a smaller win in the South.

Ever since the constituency was split in two back in 1997 it has always been held by two Labour MPs.

The news echoes the national picture, where former Labour strongholds are being taken either by the Conservatives or Lib Dems.

Former Swindon South MP Anne Snelgrove looked visibly upset as she lost the seat she had taken from her Labour predecessor Julia Drown at the last election in 2005.

The count in Swindon went right down to the wire in the early hours of this morning with several wards being recounted for various reasons.

The Oasis leisure centre was a hive of activity with hundreds of people clamouring over one another to find out what had happened.

Before the Swindon constituency was split in 1997, it had a balanced number of both Labour and Tory MP's.

Many have put Justin Tomlinson's substantial win down to the fact that Labour stalwart Michael Wills, who held the North Swindon seat for 13 years, stood down his year and handed the baton to new boy Victor Agarwal.

At the beginning of the count many thought Anne Snelgrove would maintain a majority in the South seat and secure another term, but as the evening wore on the rumours began circulating that Swindon had gone blue.

Originally, it was expected the Swindon seats would be declared by 2am, but it wasn't until 4.15am when the Swindon South seat was claimed by Robert Buckland and half an hour later, Justin Tomlinson was toasting victory for the Conservatives.