Labour has lost their ‘Safe Seat’ in the Brent East
2003 by-election.

This is a good sign for all those how have felt that for the last few years that our government has been far too comfortable. It shows they won’t get away with it, well it all. Nice to know the Tories didn’t get in to ant it.

Hears the brake-down and an article from the Guardian.

Votes Share Change
% %

Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat 8,158 39.1 +28.5
Robert Evans, Labour 7,040 33.8 -29.4
Uma Fernandes, Conservative 3,368 16.2 -2.0
Noel Lynch, Green Party 638 3.1 -1.6
Brian Butterworth, Socialist Alliance 361 1.7 n/a
Fawzi Ibrahim, Public Services. Not War 219 1.1 n/a
Winston McKenzie, Black Voice for
Great Britain 197 0.9 n/a
Kelly McBride, Independent 189 0.9 n/a
Harold Immanuel, Independent 188 0.9 n/a
Brian John Hall, UK Independence Party 140 0.7 0.0
Iris Mary Jessie Cremer, Socialist
Labour Party 111 0.5 -0.8
Neil Francis Walsh, Independent 101 0.5 n/a
Alan 'Howling Lord' Hope, Official Monster
Raving Loony Party 59 0.3 n/a
Aaron Barschak, Independent 37 0.2 n/a
Jiten Bardwaj, Independent 35 0.2 n/a
'Rainbow' George Weiss, www.xat.org 11 0.1 n/a

Liberal Democrat majority: 1,118
Time of declaration: 2.35 AM
Turnout: 36.2%

The Liberal Democrats staged a sensational by-election victory early today when they came from third place to win the Brent East byelection with a 29% swing that will shake Tony Blair's confidence on the eve of Labour's Bournemouth conference.

Downing Street's nightmare became reality just as the prime minister reorganises his kitchen cabinet in the wake of months of controversy over Iraq and the Hutton inquiry and continuing voter scepticism about the pace of public service reform.

It puts Mr Blair back where he hoped not to be when he rises to address Labour conference activists with a "no retreat" message in less than two weeks time, on the back foot and under pressure to embrace a more traditional Labour philosophy.

His promises to listen more carefully will now have to be redoubled. Many party critics will blame Iraq - a divisive issue in Brent - though loyalists claim it was less important than local issues in the campaign. Others will claim that their leader is, after nine years of unbroken success, is now becoming a liability.

Sarah Teather, the 29-year-old new MP for the inner city multi-ethnic seat once held by Ken Livingstone, beat Robert Evans, the local Labour MEP, easily to turn the late Paul Daisley's 2001 majority of 13,047 votes into a Liberal Democrat majority of 1,118. She will be the youngest member of the Commons.

For Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, who invested his personal prestige and a large chunk of his summer holiday pounding the pavements of north-west London, it was the biggest boost for his oft-criticised leadership since Sandra Gidley's capture of the safe Tory seat of Romsey in May 2000.

It brings his parliamentary party at Westminster up to 54 MPs, the largest number since the 1920s and, at least for the moment, gives weight to his team's claim that the Conservatives are failing to capitalise on Labour's discomforts and should "step aside and let the Liberal Democrats take on this government".

The turnout, 36.4%, was well below the 49.9% in the seat in 2001, itself 10% below the poor general election average during the second Blair landslide. But it was higher than many predictions - a tribute to the effort made by all the main parties - and almost twice the worst byelection turnout since 1997, 19.6% when Hillary Benn took Leeds Central in 1999.

What Labour dismissed as the inevitable mid-term blip was the party's first byelection defeat in 15 years. The normally low-key Mr Kennedy, who will indulge in a victory photo-opportunity this morning, said as the count edged slowly his way after midnight: "This is not just a big boost for the Liberal Democrats, it's a big boost for British politics.

"We have shown there is no such thing as a no-go area for the Liberal Democrats. In Britain's most diverse community we have shown that we can speak for every section of society."

Nick Raynsford, the local government minister, who took back a famous anti-Labour byelection disaster -Greenwich, lost to the SDP in 1987 - in 1992, admitted that Labour faces a "mid-term" problem.

Mr Blair and Mr Evans - dubbed the Brussels-based candidate from "millionaires' row" in one Tory campaign leaflet - were not the only losers in yesterday's 16-candidate contest which saw a plethora of minor contestants, angry about the Iraq war, Ireland, the environment, high council tax and local issues in a borough with a poor municipal record under both main parties.

Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who saw his candidate, local community nurse and Brent councillor Uma Fernandes fall to third place, will face pressure on his own leadership in Blackpool next month.

The party chairman, Theresa May, claimed that fears that the Tory vote would collapse had been proved wrong by a "super candidate". The result was "a Labour failure", she argued.

But the leader's name was barely mentioned in campaign literature and muttering critics will say the result points to fresh Tory setbacks in the European, local and London mayoral elections next spring. "We've only got until Easter to mount a challenge to Iain," said one critic.