VICTORIOUS Labour MP Phil Wilson said on winning the Sedgefield by-election: "I feel very proud to be able to represent the community I have lived in all my life.

"So many people here are my friends and if they didn't know me they knew my dad from when he worked in the mines.

"My priorities are going to be local priorities. Newton Aycliffe town centre is a continuing issue that needs to be resolved and for the rest of the constituency we need to think about anti-social behaviour which we need to crack down on.

"We also need the NHS to continue to grow and prosper as the best organisation of its kind in the world.

"On the other side of the anti-social behaviour coin, we need to do more for our young people."

On the rise of the British National Party, he said: "99.7 per cent of the population here is white British and the BNP offers simple solutions to complicated issues. I think the BNP doesn't tell the truth about itself and if it did it wouldn't get the votes that it did."

Greg Stone, the Liberal Democrat candidate who increased his share of the vote by 11.2 per cent, said: "It's a very good result for the Liberal Democrats.

"There is a lot of disenchantment in the constituency with Labour and we have capitalised on that.

"The Lib Dems are alive and kicking and challenging Labour very hard.

"People feel the previous MP (Tony Blair) was more interested in issues elsewhere and they have been taken for granted."

Graham Robb, the Conservative candidate who increased his share of the vote by 0.2 per cent, said: "A politician's share price is the share of the vote. Normally the third party gets squeezed, but that didn't happen here. We have not been hammered. We had a positive campaign on local issues with a local candidate.

"We needed to challenge Labour with some reasonable arguements and we wouldn't have had a debate about the state of Aycliffe town centre and post office closures without our positive campaign.

"I am disappointed that we didn't come second, but satisfied with our share of the vote."

On the rise of the BNP, he said: "Mainstream parties and the media have to ask some serious questions about how we tackle an extremist party that airbrushes extremism out of its leaflets and campaigns. The people of the North-East are not extremist. They voted for what they regarded as moderate, pro-British policies, but I believe they were grossly misled and badly served by the media and the mainstream parties.

"We have to think of new ways to explain what the BNP stands for. It is a difficult debate without giving them the oxygen of publicity on the one hand and on the other explaining what they stand for.

"I couldn't share a platform with them which is why I and Phil Wilson walked off when their candidate started to speak."

The British National Party retained its deposit in Sedgefield, a constituency it did not contest in 2005.

Candidate Andrew Spence, who scooped 2,494 votes, said: "The Labour Government has been a cancer in the heart of this country for too long, eating away at the heart of this proud and noble country. We are the cure for that political cancer.

"Tonight has shown that this country will no longer be taken for granted."