As the votes are counted, the Harrow Times takes a look at the situation facing candidates vying for the Harrow West seat.

Gareth Thomas was elected for Labour in 2005 with a majority of 2,028 ahead of the Conservative Party, then represented by Mike Freer.

However, boundary changes to the constituency have dramatically altered the picture in Harrow West and made the Tories' task of winning an awful lot hard.

Harrow West no longer includes the wards of Pinner, Pinner South, and Hatch End, which will instead contested as part of the Pinner, Northwood and Ruislip constituency, and they have been replaced by the Greenhill and Marlborough wards, formerly in Harrow East.

Turnout is expected to be considerably higher today than at the last election, in 2005, but the 2006 council election results give a good indication of the new picture in Harrow West.

In Marlborough, Labour comfortably won all three seats with an 866 majority, while in Greenhill they were narrowly edged out by the Tories.

In Pinner and Hatch End, the statistics from 2006 show Gareth Thomas no longer has to contest wards Labour lost by almost 5,000 a piece, including Pinner South where Labour came third behind the Liberal Democrats.

The new picture, according to this site, shows Labour had a notional 6,583 majority going into today's poll.

The latest national polls show an eight per cent drop in support for Labour, but the increase in Tory support has been dented by the surge by the Liberal Democrats.

If this is replicated in Harrow West, it may be enough to curtail Conservative candidate Rachel Joyce's bid to be elected to Parliament.

The candidates for Harrow West are:

Rachel Joyce – Conservative Party.

Chris Noyce – Liberal Democrats.

Rowan Langley – Green Party.

Herbie Crossman - UKIP.

Gareth Thomas – Labour Party.