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Labour hit by triple by-election blow
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| Independents Dai Davies and Trish Law celebrate victories over Labour |
Labour is licking its wounds after failing to win back either the Westminster or Welsh assembly seats in the Blaenau Gwent by-elections and being pushed into fourth place in Bromley and Chislehurst.
In a major setback for the government, Independent Dai Davies won the south Wales seat in the Commons, which Labour held with a majority of 19,000 little over a year ago.
Davies succeeds the late Peter Law, a former Labour Welsh assembly member who left the party to stand against it as an Independent at last year's general election.
Law's majority was cut by 7,962 from 2005, but Davies was still more than 2,000 votes ahead of Labour's Owen Smith.
Meanwhile Law's widow Trish also triumphed in the race to succeed him at Cardiff Bay, winning with a majority of 4,464.
That victory deprives Labour of a majority in the Welsh assembly, leaving it at the mercy of any coalition of its opponents.
Bromley
In Bromley and Chislehurst the Conservatives held on to the Commons seat vacated by the late Eric Forth, although the Tories saw their majority slashed by the Liberal Democrats.
Local London assembly member Bob Neill won with 11,621 votes, less than half those Forth polled last year.
The Lib Dems cut the Conservative lead by 13,342 to 633 by going up 1,620 votes to 10,988 in a setback for David Cameron in the first major test of his modernising Tory leadership.
But in a further blow to Tony Blair Labour fell from second place to fourth behind the UK Independence Party, losing 8,316 votes.
Reaction
Labour chairman Hazel Blears said the outer London result had been an "absolute disaster" for Cameron's leadership with him "nearly losing one of their safest, rock solid Tory seats".
"People vote tactically in by-elections and clearly there was a move here to vote anything but Tory," she told the BBC.
However she acknowledged that the party was struggling in its heartland areas such as south Wales.
"We actually reduced the independent majority dramatically but clearly there are issues there for us," she said of the Blaenau Gwent results.
"Nine years into government we are taking some difficult decisions for the long term."
As Labour heads into a national policy forum meeting this weekend, the pressure will be on Blair to show that he is able to restore the party's momentum or indicate when he will stand down.
But Blears said he would not be setting out the timetable for his departure that his critics demand.
"They are certainly not going to get this fabled, mythical timetable," she told the Radio 4 Today programme.
"Clearly there are issues around because the prime minister has said that he is not going to stand at the election. Clearly, that is going to be around the place."
Blair
The prime minister's official spokesman also dismissed suggestions that Blair had "run out of steam" or should change course.
"He is tackling the issues of welfare reform, the future of pensions, the future of our energy policy," the spokesman said.
"All of them are being driven forward by the prime minister, as well as reforms of education and health.
"I don't think that fits the description of a government 'running out of steam'."
"He was elected on a reform agenda just over a year ago," he added. "He is following through that agenda."
'Wake-up'
Conservative chairman Francis Maude said he was pleased his party had won in Bromley and Chislehurst but "disappointed" at the margin of victory.
He said the result had been a "wake-up call" for the party which showed that it still had "a long way to go" to win power.
"David has been rightly driving a process of change in the party and the simple truth from this election result is that we have to drive that change faster, wider and deeper" he told Today.
"We have to supply more and more positive reasons for people to vote for us and I am sure we will do so."
Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell praised his party's Bromley and Chislehurst effort as a "stupendous result" in "one of the safest Conservative seats in the country".
"It shows that there is no confidence in Cameron's Tories in the Conservative heartlands," he said.
Sir Menzies added that the results in both Blaenau Gwent and Bromley and Chislehurst were a "complete rejection of the Labour government".
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Published: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 07:55:14 GMT+01
Author: Daniel Forman
Results
Blaenau Gwent
Westminster
Dai Davies (Independent): 12,543
Owen Smith (Labour): 10,059
Steffan Lewis (Plaid Cymru): 1,755
Amy Kitcher (Liberal Democrat): 1,477
Margrit Williams (Conservative): 1,013
Alan Hope (Official Monster Raving Loony): 318
Majority: 2,484
Turnout: 50.5%
Welsh assembly
Trish Law (Independent): 13,785
John Hopkins (Labour): 9,321
Steve Bard (Liberal Democrat): 2,054
John Price (Plaid Cymru): 1,109
John Burns (Conservative): 816
John Matthews (Green): 302
Majority: 4,464
Turnout: 52.08%
Bromley and Chislehurst
Bob Neill (Conservative): 11,621
Ben Abbotts (Liberal Democrat): 10,988
Nigel Farage (UKIP): 2,347
Rachel Reeves (Labour): 1,925
Ann Garrett (Green): 811
Paul Winnett (National Front): 476
John Hemming-Clarke (Independent): 442
Steven Uncles (English Democrats): 212
John Cartwright (Monster Raving Looney): 132
Nick Hadziannis (Independent): 65
Anne Belsey (Money Reform Party): 33
Majority: 633
Turnout: 40.5%
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