 He then sat for Eltham, the successor seat and since 1997 has represented Worthing West, a safe Tory seat in Sussex.As the result of the by-election was a Conservative gain from Labour, the result reduced the Labour majority in the House of Commons from 3 seats to 1 seat as their number of seats fell from 319 to 318 in a House of 635 members.However the position of the Labour Government was made worse by the fact one of its MPs John Stonehouse, was absent from the country.