THE Newton Abbot Constituency has seen Anne-Marie Morris in the parliamentary seat for the Conservatives since the 2010 General Election and she now faces new opponents.

On the first occasion she defeated Liberal Democrat Richard Younger-Ross by just 523 votes, but five years later her majority increased dramatically to 11,288.

Younger-Ross was MP for the Teignbridge Constituency before boundary changes after dismantling the long time blue stronghold. His place in Wesminster came at his third attempt in 2001 when he ousted Patrick Nicholls the incumbent since 1983.

You have to delve back 60 years before that to find the seat in Liberal hands.

At the 2005 General Election Younger-Ross retained the seat having more than a 6,000 majority from Conservative Stanley Johnson – Boris Johnson’s father.

Until 1983 the Newton Abbot area had come under the Totnes Constituency and from 1955 the seat was a standing dish for Conservative Ray Mawby.

Later it was revealed the MP, who lived in Newton Abbot, had been spying for the Czech Republic during the cold war.

The count is due to start for today’s Newton Abbot four-cornered contest which also involved James Osben (Labour) and Kathryn Driscoll (Green).

Two-years-ago Rod Peers polled 6,726 votes for UKIP, but there is no UKIP candidate in the field this time and those voters could possibly have a decisive say in the outcome.