By-election triumph boosts Brown

Gordon Brown achieved a morale-boosting victory in the Glenrothes by-election early today after Labour comfortably fought off a concerted challenge from the Scottish National Party.

The SNP mounted a determined campaign to capture the Fife constituency in an effort to inflict a humiliating defeat against the Prime Minister in his own political backyard. But Lindsay Roy, the headmaster at the Prime Minister's old school, held on to the seat to deliver Labour's first by-election win for more than a year.

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Having been haunted by the spectre of defeat right up until the polls closed, Mr Roy received 19,946 votes to 13,209 for the SNP's Peter Grant, a majority of 6,737. The anti-Labour swing of just under 5 per cent was not enough to defeat the party in a seat it has held for half a century after a respectable 52.4 per cent turnout in driving rain. The Conservatives came third with 1,381 votes, while the Liberal Democrats trailed the main parties in fourth place with 947 votes. Both lost their deposits.

A relieved Mr Roy said it was time to stand up to the SNP, and he heaped praise on the Prime Minister's achievements on the economy, jobs and the union. "In these difficult economic times I pledge my support to the leader of our country, someone who has worked hard on behalf of all of us, not just in Fife but in the whole of the UK," he said.

John MacDougall, whose death in August triggered the by-election, held the seat at the last general election for Labour with a majority of 10,644 and more than half the votes cast.

Mr Brown will be hoping the victory puts an end to the damaging sequence of losses under his premiership, culminating in the seismic by-election defeat at Glasgow East in the summer where the SNP demolished a majority of more than 13,000 in a previous Labour fiefdom. Labour strategists will be relieved that the party's recovery in opinion polls appears to be translating into real votes.

The Prime Minister decided to take advantage of the much-vaunted Brown bounce on the back of his handling of the financial crisis and broke with convention to campaign twice in the constituency that borders his own Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath seat. His wife, Sarah, also went into battle on his behalf with a series of campaigning visits.

Both Labour and the nationalists fought for every vote in the Scottish new town and the outlying former pit villages which make up what would have once been rock solid territory for the Government. Labour had sought to mobilise local opposition to council-imposed rises in the cost of home helps and concern about anti-social behaviour to bring home the vote. The party was initially hampered by a creaking local party machine, a result of decades of dominance in Fife. It was forced to bus activists into the constituency from all over Scotland.

The SNP concentrated on galvanising discontent over the soaring cost of gas, electricity and food under Labour, as well as uncertainty over job losses in nearby HBOS offices. Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, paid 11 campaign visits in the drive for what would have been the party's first consecutive by-election triumphs. It appeared to be on course for victory until earlier this week when disillusioned former Labour voters started drifting back to the fold.

Two months ago, Labour strategists had been so pessimistic about their chances of winning that they decided to stage the by-election two days after the United States elected a new president. They hoped that the fall-out from losing their third safe seat this year would be overshadowed by the events across the Atlantic.

The depth of Labour's unpopularity meant that no one in the party's high command considered they had a chance in the face of the SNP advance. They even feared that defeat in Glenrothes could deal a final, fatal blow to Mr Brown's hopes of remaining in Downing Street. The remarkable turnaround will lift the spirits of Labour's MPs and activists. But, as they breathe a sigh of relief, they will be under no illusion about the electoral mountain Labour still has to scale to win the next general election.

Glenrothes result: How they voted

M Balfour, Scottish Socialist – 212

M Golden, Conservative – 1,381

P Grant, SNP – 13,209

L McLeary, Solidarity – 87

J Parker, SSCUP – 296

L Roy, Labour – 19,946

K Seunarine, UKIP – 117

H Wills, Liberal Democrats – 947

Turnout – 36,195 (52.4%), L Roy wins with a majority of 6,737