... as Grogan keeps his seat

Industry champion and Morning Advertiser columnist John Grogan has been re-elected by the narrowest of margins in his Selby constituency.

Grogan, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group, beat off Tory rival Mark Menzies by just 467 votes in Labour's 15th most marginal seat. The result wasn't declared until 7am following a recount. "The exit polls were not good and I expected to lose," said Grogan.

Selby was one of the last seats to be declared and even the TV cameras packed up an hour before the result was finally declared. The Tories had only lost the seat on one other occasion before Grogan's victories in 1997 and 2001 ­ in 1905. "I had to borrow champagne from the Tories for the photos," he said.

Grogan returned to his office at 9am. "The first call I took was from someone asking me about housing benefit," he said. "They don't let you dwell on things for long in Selby."

Grogan hopes to continue his position as chairman of the Beer Group and is looking forward to continuing campaigning on behalf of the industry. "The two key immediate issues are the implementation of the Licensing Act and the Security Industry Authority issue."

He said it would be "interesting" to see if further measures on the smoking ban and binge drinking were included in the Queen's speech to be made on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Grogan's Beer Group cohort and National Pubwatch president Nigel Evans retained his Ribble Valley seat for the Conservatives with a more comfortable 14,171 majority.