Labour scores over Conservative in by-election

London, July 20 (UNI) The Labour party under the new leadership of Mr Gordan Brown retained both the seats of Southall, known as Little India, and Sedgefield in the double by-election.

The by-election for Southall took place last evening following the demise of Labour MP Piara Khabra. The seat was retained by Labour candidate Virendra Sharma forcing David Cameron and the Conservative party to face the double by-election defeat.

Despite the Tory leader's best efforts, his party was forced into third place behind Labour and the Liberal Democrats in polls at Ealing Southall and Sedgefield yesterday.

Ms Caroline Spelman, the Conservative chairman, admitted that the party could have done better, but defended Mr Cameron's leadership.

''We made progress in Ealing Southall and reached in to communities we found difficult to reach in to,'' she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Mr Cameron had personally spearheaded the Ealing campaign. The Conservative candidate in Ealing, Tony Lit, had joined the party only days before being selected to fight the by-election and questions were raised during the campaign about the strength of his political affiliation to the Tories.

It emerged that just weeks ago he helped arranging a donation of almost 5,000 pounds to Labour from the Asian community station, Sunrise Radio, where he was the Managing Director.

But Ms Spelman defended the choice of Mr Lit. ''It was a good decision to choose somebody who really has served the community very well,'' she told GMTV.

Labour's Virendra Sharma - a councillor in the area for 25 years - held the seat, left vacant by Piara Khabra's death last month, with 15,188 votes.

That gave Labour a majority of just over 5,000, less than half its previous level.

Nigel Bakhai actually increased the Liberal Democrat lead over the Tories, taking 10,118 votes to their 8,230.

Phil Wilson was an easy winner in Sedgefield but a low turnout saw Labour's majority being slashed from 18,500 to 7,000.

The Lib Dems' Greg Stone pushed the Tories' Graham Robb back into third place. There was a speculation that a good result for Labour might prompt Mr Brown to call for an early election. Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, refused to be drawn into the speculation and said, ''The timing of the election will be a matter for the Prime Minister but I know that on Monday morning we will be welcoming two great new MPs into the house.'' UNI