Lib Dem Success in Parliamentary By-elections

4.52.48pm BST (GMT +0100) Sat 17th Jul 2004

The Liberal Democrats have won an astounding success in the Leicester South by-election, overturning a Labour majority of 13,243 to win by a margin of 1,654 votes. Parmjit Singh Gill is now the 55th Lib Dem Member of Parliament, following Sarah Teather's success in the Brent East by-election in September 2003, where she demolished a similar Labour majority to win the seat, after a successful Lib Dem campaign in the London constituency.

The result in Leicester South was Lib Dem: 10,274; Labour: 8,620; Conservative: 5,796; Respect: 3,724. The turnout was 41.6% and the huge swing away from Labour was further evidence of the lack of trust in Tony Blair (notable for his absence during both by-elections) and the Labour Party generally. The Conservatives, having claimed to be the main challengers, came a poor third.

In Birmingham Hodge Hill, where the previous Labour majority was 11,618, Lib Dem Nicola Davies just failed to win by 460 votes, despite a huge swing from Labour of over 27%. The result was Labour: 7,451; Lib Dem 6,991; Conservative: 3,543 on a 37.9% turnout.

Labour dismissed the results as a minor setback, but a "crisis" for Michael Howard. The Conservatives said that the results showed how unpopular the government was, but ignored their own loss of percentage share of the vote.