Ruddy hell! Is Amber the person to finish what Labour started?

After 13 years of Michael Foster, the town has returned to its Conservative roots and elected Amber Rudd.

Having spent the last few years working very closely with Michael, it was a fairly emotional task interviewing him moments after he had heard of his defeat.

Regardless of their politics, people were lining up to pay tribute to the out-going MP. A superb constituency MP, who no doubt suffered from his party's fall from grace nationally.

Labour supporters here in 1066 Country bemoaned the boundary changes which saw Hastings and Rye take on the Tory centric Brede Valley.

But to blame defeat purely on that is buck-passing. The fact remains Michael still had a notionally majority of more than 1,000 even after these changes were taken account for.

Quite simply, the voters had grown fed up with Gordon Brown and his government.

I lost count of the number of times I heard people say: "I like Michael, but I won't vote for that Brown."

As a staunchly loyal party man, perhaps Michael can be said to have made his bed after repeatedly backing both Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair.

And many people were critical of how much Labour's campaign locally centred on giving people reasons why not to vote for others, rather than why to vote for Michael. Don't vote Lib Dem - it is a wasted vote; don't vote BNP - they are racist; don't vote for Amber because she isn't from Hastings.

And that last approach was perhaps the most damaging. In a town which we continually hear is benefiting from an influx of home-owners heading south from the capital, to target a rival for being an outsider was naive. And tagging her the 'Lady from London' was both sexist, classist and the sort of politically point scoring that the country has grown so tired of.

Having spent a good half an hour talking to Amber the day after she was named MP, I have to admit to being something of a convert.

The rumours may have been spread that she would move back to London, that she would only be a part time MP seem wide of the mark.

She vowed to dedicate 24 hours a day to representing Hastings and Rye and spoke with a re-freshing, almost Michael Foster-esque passion for turning round the fortunes of this area.

And, if anything, she deserves our respect for coming to Hastings to fight the election. She could have picked a safe Tory seat. She didn't. She chose to fight in an area which had been Labour for more than a decade. She could have found a seat which required no hard work. One flooded with affluent voters which just needed to be kept ticking over for another four years. She didn't. She chose Hastings because she wanted a constituency she could get her teeth into.

Amber will face an uphill struggle and will have far less money to drive regeneration than Michael Foster enjoyed.

But perhaps she is the woman to take regeneration to the next step. Michael Foster made sure the town received hundreds of millions in funding which helped transform parts of Hastings.

But the fact remains, the multi-million pound office blocks and business schemes sit near empty. Labour managed to change the way the town looked, but did not manage to stimulate business and create more jobs.

Amber, with her background in business, may be the person to finish what Michael started so admirably.

And if she does manage to solve the shameful unemployment problem in Hastings she will deserve the backing she received on Thursday. But we must also not forget the building blocks put in place by Michael Foster. A man who Hastings owes an awful lot to.

Obviously, as always, this is the view of Richard Morris - and not the Observer. Please treat it as such.