Brent By-Election Result "A Taste of Things to Come in Leeds"

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 19th Sep 2003

Greg Mulholland, Parliamentary Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats in Leeds North West has hailed last night's sensational by-election victory when the Liberal Democrats overturned the Labour party majority of thirteen thousand with a swing from Labour to Liberal Democrat 29% and a swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat 15%.

A fraction of the swing achieved in Brent would see the Liberal Democrats comfortably take Leeds North West from Labour at the next general election. And this follows the local election result in May when the Liberal Democrats emulated the Brent result by polling over a thousand votes more than the nearest challengers across the whole constituency.

As Greg Mulholland commented, "The tide is turning in our direction and against Labour whilst the Conservatives continue to lose what little credibility that they have. This result shows that we take votes from Labour and the Conservatives and that is precisely what we intend to do in Leeds North West at the next general election".

And with incumbent MP, backbench Labour rebel Harold Best MP due to stand down at the next election, the seat is up for grabs and political pundits have already earmarked Leeds North West it as a seat to look our for on election night.

Greg commented on the Brent result, "People are sick and tired of New Labour spin and they no longer trust Tony Blair."

"The message from Brent is clear: people don't believe New Labour and they don't believe in the Tories. And people are starting to believe that the Liberal Democrats are the Effective Opposition locally and across the country."