Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg made several visits to the constituency Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said his party "held its own" in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, despite coming third with 14.6% of the vote. He said his candidate Elizabeth Shenton achieved a "respectable result" in the face of "an enormous national squeeze". Mr Clegg said it was a vote against Prime Minister Gordon Brown, not in favour of a Conservative government. On Thursday the Tories overturned a 7,000 Labour majority in their first by-election gain since 1982. Conservative candidate Edward Timpson took 20,539 votes, Labour's Tamsin Dunwoody was second on 12,679, while Ms Shenton was third on 6,040. You lose some, you win some
Nick Clegg Mr Clegg said: "It was a respectable result in difficult circumstances for us. "It was an enormous national squeeze this was a seat where the Conservatives had poured in quite a lot of resources over a long period of time. "They were well placed to pick up the disillusionment with Gordon Brown. It was a vote though, at the end of the day, against Gordon Brown, rather than in favour of a Conservative government in my view." He added: "You lose some, you win some. There'll be many other by-elections to come where I'm absolutely confident we'll do extremely well." 'Rather robust' Earlier the party's home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said third parties in by-elections often got squeezed to 3% or less of the vote. Lib Dem chief executive Lord Rennard said the Lib Dem vote had been "really rather robust" in an area where the party had always been in third place. He said a party that begins in third place "rarely does well in a by-election". RESULT AT-A-GLANCE Edward Timpson
Conservative: 20,539 Tasmin Dunwoody
Labour: 12,679 Elizabeth Shenton
Lib Dems: 6,040 But he said the Lib Dems had not suffered "anything like the sort of squeeze" Labour and the Conservatives had done in previous by-elections. And he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the Lib Dems had made gains in "traditional Labour heartlands" in St Albans, Hull and Sheffield in the recent local elections, adding: "It's the Liberal Democrats who are challenging, not the Conservatives." In her speech, Ms Shenton told the government: "You need to know that you were very wrong when you supported a budget that taxed people on ordinary incomes more than the rich. "The people who elected a Labour government did not expect it to behave like a Conservative one." Mr Timpson's victory in what had been considered a "safe" Labour seat represented a 17.6 swing from the 2005 general election - which Labour's Gwyneth Dunwoody had won with a majority of 7,078.
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''Daily Politics'' poll, 46% of people think David Cameron would be the best Prime Minister
The Conservative Party's Edward Timpson has won the Crewe and Nantwich by-election in the United Kingdom with a majority of 7,860 votes. This is the party's first by-election victory in 26 years and party leader David Cameron visited the constituency earlier.

Labour Party candidate Tamsin Dunwoody said that the 17.6% swing was a "mid-term blip" and that the people of Crewe and Nantwich will be "watching" Mr. Timpson. However David Cameron proclaimed the result "the end of New Labour" calling the Conservatives' overturning of the 7,000 Labour majority "the start of something different and something bigger".

He criticised the Labour Party's campaign in Crewe and Nantwich, which had described the Conservative candidate as a "toff", as "negative", "xenophobic" and "class war" but said he realises the differences between by-election and general election results. The newly elected Mr. Timpson said in his victory speech that "I am going to stand up for local families, local jobs and, whenever I need to, stand up to the Government on your behalf." 

Miss Dunwoody is confident of Gordon Brown's leadership, telling reporters earlier that "we know the Prime Minister can lead us through this." Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman also defended Mr. Brown's position, saying that "the overwhelming majority of people in the Labour Party... are fully behind Gordon Brown."

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, defended his party's third-place result as "really rather robust" and said the people's votes were anti-Labour, not pro-Conservative. The UK Independence Party are pleased with the result, claiming that it confirms the party's position as "the fourth political force in the country" and their candidate Mike Nattrass said "this has been a stepping stone for the European elections next year." 

===Result===