LONDON, Sept 19: British Prime Minister Tony Blair suffered a painful mid-term blow at the polls this week when a stronghold of his Labour Party fell to the Liberal Democrats in a closely fought by-election, the first since the Iraq war.

It was the first time since Mr Blair swept to power six years ago that Labour has lost a by-election anywhere, let alone in the ethnically diverse north London constituency of Brent East.

Liberal Democrat standard bearer Sarah Teather defeated Robert Evans, a Labour member of the European Parliament, by a 1,118-vote margin to become at 29 the youngest member of the British parliament, the House of Commons.—AFP