Greg wins hands down in Hammersmith

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Conservatives take local constituency from Labour

The Conservatives have taken the Hammersmith and Fulham constituency from Labour with Greg Hands now being the local representative at Westminster.

There was a 7.3% swing away from Labour with the winning candidate getting 22,407 votes, 45.4% of those cast.

The Liberal Democrats and the Greens also seem to have taken votes from Labour whose campaign was hampered somewhat by the sitting MP Iain Coleman standing down a few months before the election.

Turnout was up by 6% from the last election to 62.4% of the electorate.

Mr. Hands, who is currently serving as a Councillor has lived in the constituency for 15 years. He campaigned hard on issues such as crime, possible hospital closures and immigration.

He was born in 1965 in New York of British parents who moved back to the UK when he was seven. He went on to read Modern History at Cambridge where he achieved a first class degree. He worked in the City until 1997. He is fluent in several languages including Czech and Slovak.

He moved to Fulham in 1990, initially living close to Putney Bridge tube station, before buying a house in Rylston Road in 1991, where he still lives with his fiancée, Irina. Greg and Irina are engaged to be married in July 2005.

As well as representing Town ward in Fulham and being the leader of the Conservative group in the Council he is a trustee of the local Brunswick youth club, a school governor at St. Thomas' R.C. Primary School in Fulham, and also a member of the local Police Consultative Group, a former Home Office appointed Lay Visitor to local police stations, a member of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, a Friend of Charing Cross Hospital, and was the co-founder of the Save Fulham Pools Campaign.

He is also an active member of the Fulham Society, the Hammersmith Society, the Fulham & Hammersmith Historical Society, the Hammersmith & Fulham Historic Buildings Group, the Brook Green Association and other local groups.

July 11, 2005