The swings

Labour to Lib Dems 16.2%

Conservative to Lib Dems 9.1%

SNP to Lib Dems 6.8%

Liberal Democrats defy expectations

At the start of this campaign, many political commentators thought that the Liberal Democrats would be fighting to retain the second place that they narrowly gained over the SNP in 2005 - or even fighting to stay ahead of the Conservatives. The result was a sensational Liberal Democrat victory.

The result has proved that:

• three party politics is here to stay across Great Britain

• people want a better choice than Labour or Conservative

• the appeal of the Liberal Democrats for a fairer, greener and more democratic Britain has growing support.

This was our 243rd most winnable constituency at the last election.

Last night, Liberal Democrats achieved a huge 16% swing against Labour - enough to gain another 20 seats from Labour in Scotland alone. If this swing was repeated across Great Britain more than 200 Labour seats would fall to the Lib Dems.

The Conservatives lost even more support than their average drop in support in parliamentary by-elections since 1997. If this result was repeated across Great Britain, the Liberal Democrats would gain 40 seats from the Conservatives.

The SNP got absolutely nowhere - having fallen behind the Liberal Democrats in both seats and votes at the 2005 General Election.

Labour have suffered a massive blow in the seat where Gordon Brown lives and in a campaign in which he featured most prominently.

A similar result in the New Forest area would mean a Liberal Democrat MP elected to parliament.