"Do you really think that 12000 people switched allegiance to John Leech because he conned them?" Take a look here, and you will find that 15,205 people voted for Keith Bradley in 2005. In 2001 Keith polled 19,239. Now for some simple maths... 19,239-15,205=4034. Not 12,000. The Lib Dems polled 15,872 in 2005 and 7,715 in 2001. 15,872-7,715=8157. I make that 4034 voters switching to the Liberal Democrats, and the remainder people that didn't vote last time and tories.