By-election fallout

The Conservatives have made their first by-election gain for 26 years, overturning a 7,000-plus majority in the process.

'Tory boy' Edward Timpson, as the class-conscious Labour campaign has dubbed him, won over Crewe voters from the daughter of late Labour stalwart Gwyneth Dunwoody, who had held the seat for 1974.

Polls suggesting Tamsin Dunwoody was unlikely to cling on to her mother's seat were vindicated as Mr Timpson went on to win nearly half of all votes cast.

Inevitably the result will have implications at a national level, with Gordon Brown's premiership likely to take yet another blow in the event of a defeat.

Another party performed below expectations. The Liberal Democrats, usually at their best when it comes to gritty by-election fights, were forced on to the sidelines as the Timpson-Dunwoody battle unfolds.

Now though the attention is turning to the fallout from the result, which ends a terrible month for Mr Brown and Labour. Many see the deadline for his premiership as the autumn conferences. It will be up to the prime minister to demonstrate change in voters' moods well before then.