Labour Wins Uk Bypoll, Major Now In Minority

Britain's opposition Labour party has won a key by-election, delivering a crushing defeat to the ruling Conservatives just weeks before Prime Minister John Major must face a national election.

Labour's victory in Wirral South, a safe Conservative seat ever since it was created in 1983, pushed Major's government into a parliamentary minority and made him reliant on smaller parties for his survival to May, the national election deadline.

But it was the scale of Labour's victory that spelled out Major's dwindling hopes of winning his party wins an unprecedented fifth term in office after 18 years in power.

Labour's Ben Chapman won the seat left vacant by the death of Conservative Barry Porter by a margin of 7,888 votes, overturning a majority of 8,183 at the 1992 election. Labour took 53 percent of the vote to 34 percent for the Conservatives.

The people of Wirral South have spoken for Britain, Chapman told jubilant supporters after the result was read out early yesterday. They are saying to John Major and the government: