Stunning Bye-Election win for the Lib Dems

12.45.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 29th Sep 2003

Crawley Liberal Democrats leader, Gordon Seekings - Councillor for Northgate - has described the sensational bye-election win for Sarah Teather, his party's candidate in Brent East, as an historic breakthrough for the Liberal Democrats.

"The tide is turning against Tony Blair's New Labour party - but it remains too far out for the Conservatives, who suffered an electoral disaster", said Gordon echoing Sarah Teather's acceptance speech. "The result shows that the Liberal Democrats are on the way up."

Gordon went on to say "With a swing and result like Brent East we could even - as unlikely as it may seem now - have a Lib Dem MP for Crawley."

"It is a fantastic tribute to the people of Brent that they were willing to come out and state clearly that a prime minister cannot mislead a country over war, the NHS and public services and not be punished electorally for it. You only have to look to Crawley Hospital to see what New Labour is really about - poorer services at greater cost.

"People who were disappointed with Labour at the last General Election are now dismayed and some of their former supporters are even disgusted at their failures to improve services like the NHS, by the decision to invade Iraq, and by the way that they exaggerated the case for war. They are losing the trust of the British electorate, who are increasingly looking to the Liberal Democrats as the only radical alternative to Labour."

"Former Labour supporters and members are joining the Lib Dems locally and nationally. It's also worth noting that since the Labour Party was founded every single time the Liberals have won a bye-election from them, Labour have subsequently gone on to lose or fail to gain a majority at the next General Election."