Hague and Randall bask in victory

William Hague reacts to the Tory victory on the BBC's World At One programme Dur 1'43"

Hague Hails Uxbridge as New Beginning for Tories

Congratulating the winning candidate, John Randall, Mr Hague said the result showed the party could win when it worked together. He claimed voters were now returning to the Tory fold.

The Tories held onto Uxbridge with a 3,766-vote majority, celebrating their first parliamentary by-election triumph for eight-and-a-half years.

It was the first time the party had won a Parliamentary by-election since their now leader William Hague won in Richmond, North Yorkshire, in February 1989.

Slaughter: Defeated

Mr Hague said minutes after the victory: "I say `Thank you' to everyone in Uxbridge. I congratulate John Randall. This is a great start. Trust is returning to the Conservatives. We are back in business."

Labour tried to play down their failure to win the seat. Their defeated candidate, Andrew Slaughter said it would have been a "miracle" if Labour had won.

But the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott conceded that there were always lessons to be learned from by-elections.

"Labour has done well in what is basically a constitutency which is a Tory seat," he said.

Hear the result
Dur 2'10"

The result cuts Labour's majority to 176 and could amount to the first concrete sign that Tony Blair's three-month post-election honeymoon is over.

The by-election was prompted by the death of the Tory MP Sir Michael Shersby. A popular figure locally, he had hung onto the seat with a narrow majority of just 724 votes in the general election.

The Conservatives have fought a vigorous campaign, determined to give William Hague's leadership an early boost.

Kerr: Squeezed by Labour and Tories

Labour put enormous efforts into trying to win the seat, despite their huge majoity in parliament. Tony Blair even visited the constituency, becoming the first Prime Minister for more than 30 years to campaign in a by-election.

But Labour's campaign was overshadowed by a row over the decision to ditch the party's general election candidate David Williams. Some local party workers were infuriated that he was not even shortlisted as a possible candidate for the by-election.

The Labour Party's leadership has come under fire for imposing a new candidate in the by-election rather than sticking by one of its local councillors.

The party could have won the by-election if it had stuck with its general election candidate David Williams, said Peter James, chairman of the Labour group on Hillingdon Council, which includes Uxbridge.

"Far from the Tories winning this election, I think the Labour Party did a very good job at losing this election," he said. "We had a very good candidate at the general election, Councillor David Williams, who should have been standing at this election. And I am certainly convinced that if he had have been standing, we would have been waking up this morning with a Labour MP."

Mr Williams himself said that he could not say for sure he would have won if he had been the candidate again. But he did say he had heard on the doorsteps people saying they would have voted for him if he had been Labour's choice.

David Williams, former candidate for Uxbridge, comments on Labour's defeat on the BBC's World At One programme
Dur: 1'55"

The Liberal Democrats were squeezed in the poll, as they were in the general election, ending up with just 1,792 votes. Their candidate, Keith Kerr only just held on to his deposit.

"We have fought this by-election on this issues that matter and matter to the people of Uxbridge," he said.

• John Randall, Conservative, 16,288 (51.11%)
• Andrew Slaughter, Labour, 12,522 (39.29%)
• Keith Kerr, Liberal Democrat, 1,792 (5.62%)
• Lord David Sutch, Monster Raving Loony Party, 396 (1.24%)
• Julia Leonard, Socialist Party, 259 (0.81%)
• Frances Taylor, British National Party, 205 (0.64%)
• Ian Anderson, National Democrat, 157 (0.49%)
• John McCauley, National Front, 110 (0.35%)
• Henry Middleton, Original Liberal Party, 69 (0.22%)
• James Feisenberger, UK Independence Party, 39 (0.12%)
• Ronnie Carroll, Emerald Rainbow Islands Dream Ticket, 30 (0.09%)