Labour punished in London

Labour suffered defeats on all fronts in London and the South-East as voters punished Tony Blair.

The Tories snatched a series of seats from Labour in the suburbs and Home Counties, although the party fell short in other target areas. And the Liberal Democrats capitalised on the anti-war protest to win a record eight seats in the capital.

Highlights of election night included:

Prized Labour seats captured from the Conservatives in 1997 returned to the Tory fold, including Hammersmith and Fulham, Putney, Wimbledon and Enfield Southgate.

The Lib- Dems took Cambridge and came close to snatching a second London seat from Labour, falling only 500 votes short in Islington South on a 12 per cent swing.

With the majority of seats declared, the swing against Labour in the popular vote was bigger in London and the South-East than in the rest of Britain. In the capital, Labour's vote fell by eight per cent, the Lib-Dems increased their share by 4.7 per cent, the Tories were up 1.5 per cent and minor parties by more than two per cent.

But in terms of seats it was the Conservatives who made the biggest gains, as vote-switching from Labour to the Lib-Dems allowed the Tories in by the back door - just as Labour strategists had warned.

The net swing from Labour to Tory, just over three per cent nationwide, reached four per cent in the Home Counties and 4.8 per cent in London.

Yet while Labour MPs suf fered across the region, the party held on to enough of its 1997 gains to ensure Tony Blair's survival in No10.

In Enfield North, where the Tories required a swing of only three per cent to win, Labour's Joan Ryan clung on.

Margaret Thatcher's old Finchley seat stayed with Labour but Rudi Vis saw his majority slashed to fewer than 800 votes.

Labour's most symbolic defeat came in Enfield Southgate, where education minister Stephen Twigg was defending the seat he captured from Michael Portillo in the biggest shock of the 1997 election.

He lost to Tory David Burrowes.

But Mr Portillo himself, standing down as MP for Kensington and Chelsea, admitted that the third successive Blair victory amounted to "an amazing result" for Labour.