Pitt's win was the
Alliance's first electoral success and delighted Liberal leader
David Steel who said that the party had won a greater majority than they had expected. Noting that they seemed to have taken support away from both of the main parties in almost equal measure, Steel stated that "I believe that we are now unstoppable." The political editor of
The Glasgow Herald, Geoffrey Parkhouse, said the result "shattered" both Labour and the Conservatives and noted that
Margaret Thatcher and
Michael Foot would fear that the result reflected the victorious Pitt's claim that the Alliance had "caught the imagination of the voters" and that as consequence there were "no longer any safe seats for Tory or Labour in the country." Parkhouse also thought the result made the Alliance favourites to win the
forthcoming by-election in Crosby. Pitt was not successful in retaining the seat in the
1983 general election, losing to Conservative candidate
Humfrey Malins. At the same general election, the unsuccessful Conservative candidate
John Butterfill was elected as the MP for
Bournemouth West, a seat he held for 27 years until his retirement in 2010. ==Previous result==