Nicola Davies: Thank You Hodge Hill!

6.03.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 16th Jul 2004

Nicola Davies has today thanked the voters of Hodge Hill for the massive increase in support for the Liberal Democrats. Nicola said: "The voters of Hodge Hill have made their opinion of Labour's actions since the last General Election completely clear. In 2001, Labour had a majority of over 11,500 votes in this seat. 11,000 of them have left today. Hodge Hill voters have sent a loud message - and I hope that Labour hears it.

"I'd like to thank every person that I've spoken to during this campaign, every person that took the time to vote for me on Thursday, and my campaign team. I'm proud of the way we fought positively and talked about issues, despite the frightened, bitter Labour campaign against us."

On a fantastic night, the Liberal Democrats stormed to victory in the Leicester South by-election, overturning another rock-solid Labour majority - Parmjit Singh Gill becomes the 55th Liberal Democrat MP Charles Kennedy said: "This is a fantastic night of success for the Liberal Democrats.

"The story of the night is of two party politics in the cities - the Liberal Democrats versus Labour.

"Yet again we have shown that we can take on Labour and win. We have proved that the Liberal Democrats' win in Brent East was no flash in the pan and this will have big implications for the next General Election.

"The Conservatives are going nowhere except further down and out. This demonstrates that in large areas of the country a Conservative vote is now a wasted vote.

"The Liberal Democrats remain positively on course for a further major stride forward at the next General Election."