Lembit Opik shocked as Tories win ‘safe seat’
Friday 7th May 2010, 2:29PM BST.
The Conservatives today ousted Lembit Opik from his Montgomeryshire seat and maintained their stranglehold on Shropshire.
In a shock result, the Liberal Democrat lost what was considered a safe seat for the party by 1,184 votes – a swing of 13.2 per cent to the Conservatives.
Today, Mr Opik, 45, was left “shocked” after he was defeated by former Mid and West Wales Assembly Member Glyn Davies.
Mr Opik, who had been MP for Montgomeryshire since 1997, has become well known over the years for dating one of the Cheeky Girls singers and his long-term relationship with weather presenter Sian Lloyd.
Mr Opik said: “It’s not a result I expected nor wanted and it’s very disappointing.
“Perhaps it was my brand of politics which people weren’t too keen on. Perhaps it was a big surge to the Conservatives.”
But his opponent Glyn Davies said while he was sad to see people lose he was extremely pleased to have won.
He said: “It’s always sad for me to see people lose because I’ve been there myself and I know how hard it can be. It’s very emotional.”
Election 2010
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this guys an embarrasment, im anti tory like most but i was actually pleased here to see them kick this guy out
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What next for Lembit. dancing on ice or celebrity big brother..
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On the face of it, Opik and his campaign team do seem to have fatally underestimated how voters were repelled by both is various PR stunts and also his arrogant “I’m not discussing it” attitude surrounding expenses.
He’ll be ok. He can concentrate on telly work now, that seemed to be his first real love more than his constituents. They seemed to realise that themselves in the end. Hence the result.
Senior Lib Dem figures also seem to have been shocked that he was not re-elected too – which leads me to wonder about the judgement of the leaders in the Lib Dem party generally!
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A weather presenter, a pop star and a lingerie model, Lembit Opik…the thinking womans anagram.
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Erm… a, most people voted for conservative so they are obviously NOT anti tory… ;O)
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The guy has to go off now and make a living out of politics . I do some times wonder what some people expect them to do , what you do is exploit what ever you can get the most money from.
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You reap what you sow.
If you devote your time to being a celebrity, dont complain if you get fired from your day job.
Now you have time to be a full-time non entity.
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that’s what happens when he spends more time to the celebrity circus than the Westminster circus
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Playboy celebrity antics have caught up with him!
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Lembit also turned up on HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU yesterday….recorded just a few hours after his defeat.
Which sort of sums him up really, and yet on the other hand I imagine he’s got to start looking even more towards the media for work, and I suppose he can’t be blamed for that.
I’d be amazed if the Lib Dems wanted him to stay in any public capacity in the party – he is damaged goods and they should have seen that to start with.
Personally I think appearing on HIGNFY was a huge error of judgement by Opik, but I suppose it’ll get him a slot on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ or something. Which is probably why he agreed to do it.
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I have never liked this arrogant, supercilious idiot but he must have something. One cannot describe him as handsome, one cannot describe him as being in any way attractive and yet, he manages to get beautiful women to accompany him.
The obvious question is, how, why?
Apart from that and his strange looks, when he is acting sensibly, rationally and maturely, he is quite an able politician. He will no longer be an attraction on TV and his pocket is going to be hit pretty hard. How the”mighty” will have fallen.
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Just wanted to add a sort of postscript here to say that most of the comments here on this story typify for me why democracy doesn’t work: because of moronic and xenophobic behaviour by the so-called electorate. There’s not one single good reason given here, by anyone, for why Lembit Opik should not have been re-elected. He’s a single guy, not a married man having affairs, so what do his reltionships have to do with his work as a politician? And his name: an anagram? Oh, very funny (I don’t think) – merc’s obviously NOT one of the thinking women she(?) speaks of! And since when was appearing on HIGNFY any sort of inappropriate thing for a politician to do? There has always been a stream of them on the show as guests, making a valuable contribution to its entertainment value. Nothing wrong with that, the way I see it.
And the reason why those “senior LibDems” were shocked? Hmmm, let’s see… maybe THEY know better than you, Jeepers, just how hard working Lembit Opik was in his ‘day job’, despite all those late nights out with the girls and making TV appearances. And yet, somehow, I just know that you’ll still think you know better!
Heaven knows, there ARE plenty of things for which politicians rightly deserve to be criticised, or even penalised, but if these comments represent the best anyone can come up with as reasons why Lembit Opik should have lost his seat, then it really does show why so many of the UK electorate reside in such bigoted and blissful ignorance and deserve all they get when they collectively vote with such poor judgement. As so many did in this election.
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From ‘Democracy Sucks’:
“….And the reason why those “senior LibDems” were shocked? Hmmm, let’s see… maybe THEY know better than you….”
Erm, if you look at the result you’ll see that the senior Lib Dems clearly DIDN’T know better!
If someone else had been fighting the Lib Dem seat, they’d still be in with a 7 or 8,000 majority. At least. I doubt many in Montgomeryshire wanted a Tory there, that’s for sure. But the electorate has spoken, and to blame them of ‘poor judgement’ smacks of sour grapes. So let’s just agree to disagree eh?
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as a regular viewer of the parliament program, montgomery have just lost an excellent mp. lembit should in my opinion be judged on what he has done for his constituents, any thing else is secondary.
only in march i heard him calling for broadband and better telephone connections for the remotest parts of his region, at staylittle and dylife, both way above llanidloes.
montgomery will be the poorer and with a tory there now, one wonders how much time he will spend pounding the beat of his patch. i hope to see lembit back in parliament soon
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Quite right ‘Democracy Sucks’, about Lembit Opik no doubt, but also about the electorate, sucked in as they have been by the right wing press, maybe some kind of qualification should be attained in order to be allowed to vote ?
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I bet Sian Lloyd is splitting her sides. No doubt she could have predicted this long before we all could. It does show that politics & being an MP is at the end of the day a serious responisibility & that “personality MP’s” who treat it like a TV game show will get booted out in the end.
They should be far better screened in the first place to prevent them even getting into power & wrecking lives with a “casual/flippant” attitude to very real issues to some of their constituents. Clearly this man thought he was more important than the people who voted for him & in the end they voted him out. He has sadly been an embarrassment for too long & he is shocked?
Being an MP is a responsibility not a game.
Good to see him gone.
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err @ 5 – do the math – circa 65 % voted non blue!!
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What got up my nose about Lembit was that he never failed to say how his family were lucky to escape from Estonia during the war times and how poor everyone was and yet had no qualms about submitting £1000,s in expenses for luxury Tv,s.I saw families thrown out on the streets in Manchester in the 50,s and that has always kept my feet on the ground.Nothing in the way comparable to an MP but would like to think people who have seen so called hardships wouldn,t exploit other peoples hard earned taxes in such a fashion.Lack of real principle
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i agree with ad
at least lembit was not a tory
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I saw Lembit on question time once he said
“most Estonians want to live in Estonia”
Obviousley M Ps are not so well paid there.
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Well it just seems like people get jealous over a person that put his job first and also was lucky enough to be involved in the TV etc, Lembit was the only candidate from any party to bother to knock on my door, i am sorry he has gone but i am sure he will brush himself off and start again, i will wait now to see future forums or news items of people of montgomeryshire wishing they never voted tory in the first place, down hill from here now for this area, but they do say you dont know what you lost till you lose it, and boy i think we are in for a shock now, people say in these comments that lebit is arrogant well what had glynn got eh, sour faced tory,
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Lembit Opik has done the constituents of Montgomeryshire no favours in the last few years. Popping up in discussions now and then does not a good public servant make. I was relieved that he was finally given the heave-ho by the electorate.
For those who feel he is hard done by you obviously don’t understand what most people expect of their well-paid MP £65,000) with excellent pension provision and very generous expenses (that’s before you fiddle them and then make ridiculous excuses). I know of people who have been let down by his non-attendance at the House of Commons after promising to be there, the sniggers and winks when his name is mentioned in parliamentaryt circles and I’ve cringed whenever there has been a story about his personal life.
Personally I don’t mind what he does with his career but the voters of Montgomeryshire will be no worse off without him. I’m certainly no Conservative supporter, but I hope Glyn Davies takes a different approach to the job of representing his constituents. Mind the door on the way out, Lembit.
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