BY-ELECTION RESULT 30th Sept 2004: Jody Slashes Labour Majority - Tories Plummet to Fourth Place

12.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 30th Sep 2004

So close, Hartlepool Lib Dem's Jody Dunn

Jody Dunn took the Liberal Democrats from third place to second in Hartlepool cutting the majority of 17,000 to 2,000 with a swing of 19%. The Tories were pushed from second into fourth place by the Lib Dems and the UK Independence Party.

The result for the Conservatives was worse even than the third places they achieved in the previous three parliamentary by-elections in Brent East, Leicester South and Birmingham Hodge Hill.

Lib Dem party president Simon Hughes said: "The Tories have not just been overtaken, they have been left in the lay-by and overtaken by UKIP. It is the only time the Tories have gone from second to fourth since the Tory Party was formed."

Lord Rennard, the Liberal Democrat campaign chief, said: "This has been a solid Labour town for 40 years. We are now seeing a pattern in which the Tories start in second place and end up third, and now fourth".

Ian Wright Labour 12752 40.7% (-18.4%)

Jody Dunn Lib Dem 10719 34.2% (+19.2%)

Stephen Allison UKIP 3193 10.2% (+10.2%)

Jeremy Middleton Cons 3044 9.7% (-11.1%)

10 others 1654 5.2%

Labour Majority 2033 Swing: 18.8% from Labour to Lib Dems