UK by-election: Labour loses 'safe seat' - but it's 'satisfactory'

British government Health Secretary John Reid claimed today that last night’s by-election results were “satisfactory” for Labour – even though the party lost one safe seat and only just held on to another.

But Dr Reid said the results were “disastrous” for the Conservatives.

The Government lost Leicester South to the Liberal Democrats and had its 11,000 lead slashed to just 460 in Birmingham Hodge Hill in what will be seen as the voters’ verdict on Iraq.

But it was a worse night for the Conservatives, who trailed in third in both seats.

Labour acknowledged voters had punished it over the war in Iraq, but it said the results showed the Conservatives’ hopes of victory at the next General Election disappearing.

Dr Reid said by-elections traditionally allowed for a protest vote and half of all seats won by the Liberal Democrats mid-term were lost again at the general election.

Speaking on GMTV, he said: “In the seventh year of a government – especially after the circumstances of this week, which weren’t the best circumstances for us to be having an election – to have won one, held on to one, and lost one, to have a score draw with the Liberal Democrats, was not a terrible result for us - it was a satisfactory one.”

Turning to the Tories, he added: “To have fallen into third place in both elections is a disaster – it is a crisis, actually, for Michael Howard.”