The emphatic victory by the British Conservatives party in a by-election in Henley last night shows that voters of all political stripes now see them as an alternative government which they can believe in, party leader David Cameron said today.
Mr Cameron said the by-election was "disastrous" for Labour, which lost its deposit after trailing in fifth behind the Greens and the far-right British National Party.
And he said he was heartened that, for the first by-election in a long time, the Tory candidate also picked up votes from the Liberal Democrats.
Speaking outside his London home, Mr Cameron said: "To have a further swing to Conservatives in such a strong Conservative seat, I really think is a very good result.
Labour's candidate Richard McKenzie pcitured after the announcement of the by-election results
"It is obviously a disastrous result for the Labour Party, but I think I am right in saying it is the first time in a long time when there has been a contest between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats when there has been a swing to the Conservatives".
As expected, Conservative candidate John Howell took the Oxfordshire seat by a comfortable margin of 10,116 in yesterday's by-election, triggered by the departure of Boris Johnson to become London Mayor.
While Labour had no hope whatsoever in winning in what is natural Conservative territory, party strategists will be alarmed at the dramatic collapse in its vote in a seat where it finished third in the last general election.
Health minister Ben Bradshaw admitted it had been a "terrible result" for Labour on the first anniversary of Gordon Brown's arrival as prime minister.
But he blamed the economy rather than Mr Brown's unpopularity, and insisted the party had bounced back to win the general election after similarly bad performances in the past.
Mr Bradshaw said Mr Brown was working in a "very difficult context".
"We've got the credit crunch, we have got a doubling in oil prices, we have had food prices rise by 40 per cent since the early spring. That's a difficult economic backdrop."
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said that the result showed that Mr Brown's days in No 10 were numbered.
"After one year in the job, Gordon Brown cannot even get enough support to save his deposit," he said.
"Labour's days are well and truly over and it is the Liberal Democrats who are challenging the Conservatives in the south and Labour in the north."
Mr Howell took the seat with 19,796 votes to the Lib Dem candidate Stephen Kearney's 9,680. Labour's Richard McKenzie could only poll 1,066 votes, behind the Green Party's Mark Stevenson on 1,321 and the BNP's Timothy Rait on 1,243.
Both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats saw their share of the vote rise slightly compared with the general election while Labour’s fell by more than 11 per cent.
PA