- guardian.co.uk, Friday November 24 2000 11.26 GMT
Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates in Preston branded Labour's win in the seat as a "hollow victory" with the party's 15% vote share drop.
There were also signs of the division that marred the Labour campaign when winner Mark Hendrick, a 41-year-old Blairite former MEP and college lecturer, was jeered by left-wing opponents as he made his victory speech.
Splits in the Labour camp were caused by opposition to the selection of Mr Hendrick to fight the seat ahead of the late left-wing MP Audrey Wise's daughter Valerie.
But Mr Hendrick later denied that the result showed a swing of more than 9% from Labour to the Conservatives.
He said: "It is a 9% swing away from Labour but only 5% of that went towards the Conservatives. On that result there would not be a Conservative government by any stretch of the imagination."
The Conservative vote rose by 3% and the Liberal Democrats' by one and a half per cent. That is hardly a shattering result for us or good news for them."
Mr Hendrick described the reported divisions in the Labour ranks in the constituency as "a splinter not a split". He said: "Many of these people were never in the Labour Party and belonged to other left-wing organisations. We are not concerned about it.
"I am a new person but I will fight just as hard for this constituency as Audrey Wise did with policies that are relevant to the new Millennium we are in, not the 1980s or 1990s."
Full results (% of vote and % change since last election in brackets)
Lab hold
Mark Hendrick (Lab) 9,765 (45.71%, -15.07%)
Graham O'Hare (C) 5,339 (24.99%, +3.07%)
Bill Chadwick (LD) 3,454 (16.17%, +1.52%)
Terence Cartwright (Lancs Soc) 1,210 (5.66%)
Gregory Beaman (UK Ind) 458 (2.14%)
Richard Merrick (Green) 441 (2.06%)
Peter Garrett (Preston All) 416 (1.95%)
Christian Jackson (BNP) 229 (1.07%)
David Franklin-Braid (BBCAP) 51 (0.24%)
Lab maj 4,426 (20.72%), 9.07% swing Lab to C
Electorate 72,687; Turnout 21,363 (29.39%, -36.52%)
1997: Lab maj 18,680 (38.86%), turnout 48,074
Useful links
Clean sweep for Labour in election test
The constituency: undaunted Tory pretender puts on brave face
Full results: Anniesland
Full results: West Bromwich West
Related stories
Analysis
of results: Apathy sweeps to victory in byelection test
At a glance: the parties' response to the results
