WEST Worcestershire got its first female Member of Parliament this morning as Harriett Baldwin stormed to victory for the Conservative Party.

Mrs Baldwin fought back the tears as she thanked her supporters and paid tribute to her recently deceased mother, with the words “This is for you mum”.

The Conservatives retained the seat with 27,213 votes – 6,754 more than Richard Burt, standing for the Liberal Democrats.

Speaking shortly after the votes were announced, Mrs Baldwin said: “My mother died suddenly on October 28 just after her 80th birthday. She had always backed me all the way.”

The Labour candidate Penny Barber received 3,661 votes (6.77 per cent), UKIP received 2,119 (3.92 per cent) and the Green Party got 641 or a 1.18 per cent share.

Mrs Baldwin said she hoped to be able to fill the shoes of the previous Conservative MP Sir Michael Spicer, who retired from politics when Parliament was dissolved. She said: “I think I’m a different person and I will have a different style to Sir Michael.

“I’m planning to have an office in the constituency that’s somewhere people can come five days a week.

“I’m also planning to start having constituency surgeries on a weekly basis as opposed to a monthly basis.”

The run-up to polling day saw ferocious campaigning from both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats including claim and counter-claim of whether the candidates were legitmately local.

Mrs Baldwin, speaking at Bransford’s Bank House Hotel where the county took place, said: “The Lib Dems have thrown everything at this seat.

“They have been targeting it and clearly their goal was to win it. They were decisively rejected by the electorate.”

The new MP for West Worcestershire pledged to scrap the Regional Spacial Strategy, which would impose thousands of new homes across South Worcestershire. The overall turnout was 74.43 per cent, up three per cent on 2005, with a total of 54,190 votes cast out of 72,807 eligible constituents. This consisted of 45,721 cast at polling stations across West Worcestershire and 8,469 postal votes.

Speaking after Mrs Baldwin’s win, Richard Burt said: “It’s a huge disappoinment.” He congratulated Mrs Baldwin, and said: “You deserve your victory. We have both worked hard in West Worcestershire.”

Caroline Bovey, UKIP candidate, said: “I got the impression that a lot of people were erring on the side of the smaller parties but it looks at the end of the day that they will go for the usual. At the end of the day people are scared of change.”

• Click here for more results and news from the 2010 General Election.