Kennedy deals Labour and Tories severe blow

THE spin doctors cannot spin themselves out of this one. Nor is there any way the figures can be massaged to cushion the massive body blows the Liberal Democrats have inflicted on Tony Blair and Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith in the Brent East by-election.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said yesterday the result in Brent East in north London, where his 29-year-old candidate Sarah Teather recorded a 29% swing to overturn Labour's General Election majority of 13,047, was a "great fillip" for the party.

Ms Teather inflicted the first by-election defeat on Labour for 15 years. While cock-a-hoop Charles Kennedy leads his party in triumph to its conference in Brighton next week, Blair and Duncan Smith will be wondering how their own political prospects could get any bleaker.