LABOUR held on to the Ham ward with a big upswing in its vote in yesterday’s council by-election.

Tina Touhy, its popular candidate, took 1,243 votes, ahead of the Conservative Nigel Churchill with 676.

Andrew Leigh, the UK Independence Party candidate, came third with 442 votes.

Turnout in the ballot was a surprisingly high 29.03 per cent of the electorate, despite a very slow start at the polling stations.

Mrs Tuohy, a long-standing resident of North Prospect, said after her victory last night: “I particularly want to thank the people of North Prospect who traditionally don't vote but who came out for me.”

She said her three priorities would be to tackle housing in North Prospect, buses for the elderly in Weston Mill, and cleaning up Ham Woods.

The by-election was called after veteran Labour councillor Chris Pattison stood down to take a job with the Audit Commission.

Labour Party’s hold on Ham has been slipping over recent elections. In 2008 Mr Pattison came within 49 votes of losing the ward.

Six candidates contested the by-election. They were Tina Tuohy (Lab), Nigel Churchill (Con), Andrew Leigh (UKIP), Rebecca Trimnell (Lib Dem), Margaret Storer (Ind), and Adrian Romilly (BNP). Margaret Storer came in fourth with 204 votes, while Rebecca Timnell received 181. Mr Romilly received 82 votes.

Mr Churchill congratulated Mrs Tuohy on her victory and said: “Obviously I’m disappointed, but it was always going to be an uphill struggle

“We'll go home, sharpen our pencils and get ready to go again.”

Cllr Ted Fry, the deputy leader of the ruling Conservative group, said: “This was Nigel's first election. It was expecting a lot of him and he has responded excellently.”

Andrew Leigh of UKIP said: “I was quite pleased with that result. I was a solid third place.”

There were 2,836 votes cast, with four spoilt ballot papers. The result leaves the political balance of the city unchanged, with 37 Tory councillors and 20 Labour.

Labour leader Tudor Evans told The Herald that the win in Ham was ‘a magnificent result’.

He said: “Set against a very hostile background, we ran a positive campaign. We won because of the quality of our candidate, the quality of our campaign and the performance of the current Tory council and their hostility to things the local community hold dear – things like Citybus and the appalling way they’re setting about the regeneration of North Prospect.

“This should be a wake-up call.”