THE biggest surprise in this General Election has been the fall of the Liberal Democrats despite their high hopes, said a senior lecturer in politics from the University of York.

Dr John Parkinson said the most interesting result locally was Conservative Julian Sturdy’s victory in York Outer over the Liberal Democrats.

He said the Liberal Democrats had high hopes for the seat, which was hotly contested following boundary changes.

Mr Sturdy won with a majority of almost 3,700, getting 22,912 votes, while Madeleine Kirk polled 19,224 votes for the Liberal Democrats. Labour’s James Alexander got 9,108.

He said: “Once people stand there in the ballot box presented with a choice they often make a more cautious choice. That is what the big two parties counted on when they tried to scare people to make them think that the Liberal Democrats represented a trickier choice.”

He said the fear created around the hung Parliament was the result of scaremongering by Labour and the Conservatives.

Dr Parkinson said: “Britain itself has plenty of experience of hung Parliaments and more countries than not that operate with coalitions and minority governments, like Germany, we think of as perfectly stable and successful places. Life doesn’t stop just because you have got a hung Parliament.

“People have been given the jitters, deliberately in some ways, by parties. The two largest parties had things to gain from scaring people and that’s not been helpful, because it’s made people more afraid of the situation than they needed to be.”

But Dr Parkinson said he did not believe the parties would stall, as their policies are very close to each other.

He said: “They all say there will have to be big spending cuts. There’s an awful lot that they agree on and an awful lot that they will be able to come to sensible views on.”