Labour holds Hodge Hill by just 460 votes

Labour has held on to the Birmingham Hodge Hill seat in a by-election, but with its majority slashed from more than 13,000 to just 460 votes.

Liam Byrne won the by-election on 15 July, narrowly holding off the Liberal Democrat candidate, Nicola Davies.

A huge swing

The Liberal Democrats achieved a swing of 26.7 per cent, one of the largest in UK by-election history. Labour's majority at the 2001 general election had been 13,243.

On the same day, Labour lost the Leicester South by-election to the Liberal Democrats on a 21 per cent swing, making it a difficult night for the Government.

Why there was a by-election

The by-election was called after the sitting Labour MP, Terry Davis, resigned on 22 June on being appointed Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

Hodge Hill, in the east of the city, has had a Labour MP since 1950, apart from a brief period when the Conservatives won a 1977 by-election in the former Birmingham Stechford constituency. That seat returned to Labour at the 1979 general election.

A bitter campaign

The campaign was fiercely fought between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, with each accusing the other of "dirty tricks".

Labour's campaign, led by West Bromwich East MP Tom Watson, produced leaflets with slogans such as "Labour is on your side, the Lib Dems are on the side of failed asylum seekers". Labour also pledged to "smash teen gangs" and create "yob-free zones".

The Liberal Democrats reminded voters of Labour's decision to go to war in Iraq the previous year. In the Washwood Heath ward, which has a large Muslim population, they produced a leaflet showing party leader Charles Kennedy and Nicola Davies surrounded by South Asian voters.

Domestic issues including schools, hospitals and crime also featured prominently.

What it means

For Labour, holding the seat is a relief, but the scale of the swing is a warning of discontent among its traditional voters, particularly over the Iraq war.

For the Liberal Democrats, coming so close in a seat Labour has held for more than half a century, and winning in Leicester South on the same night, will be seen as proof that they can challenge Labour in its urban heartlands at the next general election.

Liam Byrne now takes his seat in the House of Commons as the new MP for Hodge Hill.

The Liberal Democrat swing was, at the time, the eleventh largest in UK by-election history, and it cut Labour's lead to one of the smallest of any seat in the city.