Shocking Loss For Blair

Prime Minister Tony Blair has suffered a stinging electoral defeat at the first popular vote since a British weapons expert took his own life and the government tumbled into crisis over war on Iraq.

The north London seat of Brent East, whose member of parliament Paul Daisley died earlier this year, should have been iron-clad for Blair's Labour Party, which has held it for years.

But in a stunning reverse, the count in the early hours of Friday morning showed victory for Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather. Crucially, Britain's third party opposed the Iraq war.

Mary Farrell, a pensioner, told Reuters: "We voted Labour and we put in Tony Blair and nobody likes what is happening now. We are disgusted and fed up. We want to send him a message and the only way to do that is to vote for someone else."

Bernie Paul, 58, who is unemployed, said he voted for the Liberal Democrats. "I can't stand Blair. He is a puppet to the American President," he said.

Blair, once seen as his party's greatest asset, was barely mentioned by the Labour campaign.

His one consolation was that the main opposition Conservatives finished a poor third.