Massive swing to Lib Dems as Leicester South falls to Charles Kennedy's party

10.21.13am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 16th Jul 2004

Parmjit Gill and Charles Kennedy visiting elderly in Leicester

The Liberal Democrats have scored another sensational by-election victory, taking the seat of Leicester South from Labour with a 22% swing from Labour. The victorious Parmjit Singh Gill has become the party's first MP from an ethnic minority. In his victory speech he stressed that the public had sent a strong message: "the Prime Minister has abused and lost their trust."

Labour also took a hammering in the Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election, held on July 15th too, where the Lib Dems got an even larger 27% swing. In this formerly rock-solid Labour seat, their majority was slashed to just 460 votes and Labour only held the seat after a recount.

The Conservatives performed poorly in both by-elections, slumping to a poor third in both Leicester and Birmingham: "that is extremely bad news for Michael Howard" (BBC).

Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy said:"This is a fantastic night of success for the Liberal Democrats."The story of the night is of two party politics in the cities - the Liberal Democrats versus Labour.

"Yet again we have shown that we can take on Labour and win. We have proved that the Liberal Democrats' win in Brent

East was no flash in the pan and this will have big implications for the next General Election.

"The Conservatives are going nowhere except further down and out. This demonstrates that in large areas of the country a Conservative vote is now a wasted vote.

"The Liberal Democrats remain positively on course for a further major stride forward at the next General Election."

Brighton and Hove Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Paul Elgood expressed delight at the result, he said: 'A team from Brighton and Hove campaigned in these by-elections and we are delighted at the success.

'No Labour seats are safe from us. This result will send shock waves through New Labour. The Lib Dems are the only credible challengers to Labour and our message has gone down well with the electorate. By standing up against Blair in Parliament against the war in Iraq, we have set the running on this issue.'

Leicester South

Parmjit Singh Gill (Lib Dem) 10,274 34.9% (+17.7%)

Peter Soulsby (Labour) 8,620 29.3% (-25.2%)

Chris Heaton-Harris (Tory) 5,796 19.7% (-3.4%)

Yvonne Ridley (Respect) 3,724 12.7%

Others 994

Majority 1,654 21.5% swing Lab-LD

Birmingham Hodge Hill

Liam Byrne (Labour) 7,451 36.5% (-27.4%)

Nicola Davies (Lib Dem) 6,991 34.2% (+26.1%)

Stephen Eyre (Tory) 3,543 17.3% (-2.7%)

John Rees (Respect) 1,282 6.3%

Others 1,172

Majority 460 26.8% swing Lab-LD