TORY hopeful Ed Matts saw his election dream shattered by a series of early campaign clangers which came back to haunt him.

Mr Matts lost out in South Dorset as Labour's Jim Knight was returned as the constituency's MP with an increased majority.

Despite the nationwide swing to his party, Mr Matts was unable to shake off a series of high-profile blunders, which saw him propelled into the national headlines at the start of the election.

His first mistake came when he doctored photographs of immigration posters while posing with Conservative colleague Ann Widdecombe in the wake of the campaign to keep the deportation-threatened Kachepa family in Weymouth.

Mr Matts had to publicly apologise to the family after stirring up a press frenzy.

He was forced to say sorry again after using pictures of Olympic gold medal winners in his election literature on Portland without their permission.

And in another climbdown Mr Matts took out advertisements in local newspapers to apologise to his opponent Mr Knight after suggesting the Labour MP had been in favour of the closure of a school in the Purbeck area.

After his 1,812-vote defeat, Mr Matts admitted the setbacks had stalled his campaign but refused to lay the blame for his defeat on a lack of support from the Conservative hierarchy.

Just two shadow cabinet ministers joined him in South Dorset during the past few weeks.

He said: "It was never intended that that there would be a series of high-profile visits.

"I received the same amount of backing as Conservative candidates in neighbouring constituencies."

"I made mistakes for which I said sorry. How hard they hit my chances of election, I will never know. They can't have helped."

Victorious Mr Knight said Mr Matts' blunders were 'very unfortunate' and would not have helped.

He said: "I was happy to accept the help it gave me. "But I don't think that was the reason that I have won."

He added: "When people ask me what sort of majority would I have been happy with, I thought doubling it would have done, but to increase it by ten times is absolutely overwhelming.

"Having been known in Parliament as the MP with the smallest Labour majority and now to have a majority of 1,812 seems massive to me.

"I know this is a seat I have to defend very hard.

"I am pleased and proud to serve South Dorset and I pledge to do my best for the constituents, regardless of what party they voted for."

Mr Knight said his priorities were tackling affordable housing, council tax and pensions.

He faced a barrage of press photographers and television cameras after the result was announced at the Pavilion Ocean Room around 5am.

Liberal Democrat candidate Graham Oakes said the results showed his party would be a serious challenge in South Dorset in four years' time.

He said: "It's been an 'almost' election.

"There are many more people who want to vote Liberal Democrat in South Dorset than want to vote for any other party."

He added he had worn through a pair of shoes while out canvassing and said: "We want to give voters the opportunity to safely and positively vote for us because when we ask right across the patches from the smallest village to the heart of Weymouth, people want to vote for our policies."

UKIP candidate Hugh Chalker claimed the campaign had been a doorstep success for his party.

Mr Chalker, who captured 1,571 votes, said his party had started from scratch in getting their 'out of Europe' message over to voters.

"We have been well received throughout the constituency," he said. "My message to the electorate of South Dorset is UKIP is here to stay."

Legalise Cannabis Alliance candidate Victor Hamilton, who received 282 votes, said he was pleased not to have come last. He said: "I wanted to bring to the government's attention the full potential of legalising cannabis.

"The revenue expected from decriminalisation of cannabis could effectively remove the need for OAPs to pay council tax."

He said that he had delivered more than 30,000 leaflets during his campaign, which had met with a positive response. Mr Hamilton added: "From the revenue aspect of the reintroduction of cannabis back into society and agriculture we're looking at a commodity that would produce somewhere between two and four billion pounds in tax."

Respect candidate Berny Parkes thought that Jim Knight would have suffered in the election because of the war in Iraq and other issues which forced traditional Labour voters to abstain.

He had hoped to come fifth but was beaten into sixth place by Mr Hamilton.

Mr Parkes said: "I received a lot of support on the doorstep from Labour voters who gave me credit for standing, but I didn't think that would translate into votes.

"Our campaign was about punishing the Labour Party."

Wessex Regionalist party candidate Colin Bex said he would have been pleased to have got his vote into three figures and added: "When people have had an opportunity to slow down and consider what I'm proposing most reaction has been, 'that's very interesting.'"

Mr Bex, who has stood as a candidate at five General Elections advocating the abolition of national government and the creation of a Wessex parliament, said: "The thing that has impressed most people has been the idea of turning government the right way up."

Candidates said Andrew Kirkwood, who formed his own Personality AND Rational Thinking Yes! Party, was not at the election count because he had gone away on holiday.

David Marchesi, the Socialist Labour Party candidate, was not in the Ocean Room when the result was announced.

Turn-out for the election was 66.85 per cent, slightly up on the 2001 turnout of 66.76 per cent.

The turn-out for postal voting was 79.05 per cent.

South Dorset returning officer Ian Locke, who was presiding over his last election count, said he was relieved there was no call for a recount. He said: "The count was long - mainly because of the number of candidates, which made it much slower to sort through and get the papers organised."

The 65 counters at the Pavilion included employees of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, relatives and friends.