- guardian.co.uk, Friday November 24 2000 11.05 GMT
Trade and Industry secretary Stephen Byers said it was a good night for Labour but admitted "concern" over the low turn-out.
He accused the Conservatives of deliberately sowing disillusionment with politics in a bid to be voted in through the "back door".
"What we are increasingly seeing, I think, is a clear Tory strategy that they want to develop cynisism amongst the public about then body politic," Mr Byers said.
He denied a suggestion that ministers' contempt for parliament, particulrly from Prime Minister Tony Blair, had left voters feeling their voice did not count.
"What we are seeing is a Conservative approach which basically wants to turn people off of politics so they don't bother to vote, that's really the strategy," Mr Byers said.
"They (voters) are not going to have a poster put up by the Tory Party which has William Hague smiling on the doorstep of Number Ten. They want to get him in by the back door. That is the Conservative strategy."
Conservatives
Tory leader William Hague claimed today his party was making steady progress and had all to play for in a General Election despite Labour's string of four by-election victories.
"It's the Conservatives who increased their share of the vote across the constituencies, particularly the two in England," he told reporters at the start of a visit to a school in Dunblane, central Scotland. "That is steady progress on top of what we have achieved in elections earlier in the year and that is encouraging to us. We have to work still harder for the General Election - but it shows it is going in the right direction."
The Tory leader claimed the results were similar to 1992, when Tories failed to win those seats but won the subsequent General Election. He insisted: "We have made a dent with a strong swing to the Conservatives in Preston and West Bromwich. These are heartland Labour areas, traditional Labour seats that Labour has won for as long as anybody can remember. "
"But it shows the election is all to play for. The election is wide open. Labour could not turn out their votes in heartland areas, the Conservative share of the vote went up, and the Liberal Democrats got nowhere"
Liberal democrats
Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy said: "The by-elections show no enthusiasm for Labour, no hope for the Tories and a steady advance for the Liberal Democrats. Liberal Democrats have increased our share of support in all three constituencies compared to 1997 and 1999 (the date of Scottish parliamentary elections).
"It is a considerable achievement to advance from third place in parliamentary by-elections. This bodes well for Liberal Democrats' prospects in the General Election."
Scottish National party
Commenting on the Anniesland by-election results at a news conference in Glasgow this morning, the leader of the SNP John Swinney MSP said: "The SNP made clear progress in Anniesland, in by-election contests that no-one would have wished for.
"In what is Labour's safest Scottish Parliament seat in the whole country, the SNP vote moved forward, and Labour fell back.
"The swing achieved would result in the SNP moving ahead of Labour in voting intentions for the Scottish Parliament - and would see at least 13 Labour first-past-the-post Holyrood seats fall to the SNP, and three additional Westminster seats won by the SNP.
"In each and every electoral contest, the SNP are moving forward, and that was clearly achieved in Anniesland.
"Labour can have no grounds for complacency when their majority was halved for Holyrood, and more than halved for Westminster, in what was their safest seat in Scotland last May.
"We now look forward to winning in what will be the very different circumstances of the Falkirk West by-election."
Related stories
Full results: Anniesland
Full results: Preston
Full results: West Bromwich West
Analysis: apathy wins the day
