PHIL Wilson was announced as the winner of the Sedgefield by-election at 1am yesterday, and was at his new desk in Newton Aycliffe just eight hours later.

He managed four hours' sleep before doing breakfast radio interviews and taking a congratulatory call from the constituency's former MP, Tony Blair, at 8.30am, from Portugal.

"I feel very proud to be able to represent the community I have lived in all my life," he said. "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."

Mr Wilson's majority was greatly reduced from Mr Blair's 18,457, but his 6,956 advantage was still comfortable.

The biggest gainers of the night were the Liberal Democrats, who increased their share of the vote by eight per cent as they leapfrogged the Conservatives into second place. Their candidate, Newcastle councillor Greg Stone, said: ''This has been a fantastic result for the Liberal Democrats. Yet again, we have shown we are the only alternative to Labour in the North.''

The Conservatives' Graham Robb, a Darlington businessman, conceded that he was disappointed not to retain second place, but took comfort from his share of the vote rising by 0.2 per cent.

"A politician's share price is his share of the vote," said Mr Robb, who received a phone call of support from party leader David Cameron. "Normally, the third party gets squeezed, but that didn't happen here. We have not been hammered."

It had been a short, low-key campaign, with the state of Newton Aycliffe town centre the main issue, which allowed the Aycliffe Independent Paul Gittins to come in fifth with 1,885 votes.

In fourth, was the British National Party candidate, Andrew Spence, the former fuel protestor from Consett. He won nearly nine per cent of the vote and led a loud slow handclap from the platform in an attempt to drown out Mr Wilson's speech.

"They are a party that talks about freedom of speech and then they do their best to make sure other people are not heard," Mr Wilson said. "If people knew what they really believed in, they wouldn't get the support they did.

"In Chilton, our canvassers were stoned by kids as young as ten shouting 'BNP' - who's given them the confidence to do that?"

When Mr Spence started to speak, Mr Robb and Mr Wilson led a walkout of their own. Mr Robb 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."

Father-of-two Mr Wilson, 48, who lives in Trimdon with his partner, Margaret, resigned yesterday from his public relations company and began assembling his team. He will swear his oath of allegiance in the House of Commons on Monday.

"My priorities are going to be local priorities," he said. "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."