THE Liberal Democrats stormed to a shock by-election victory in Romsey today.

Married mother-of-two Sandra Gidley became the new Romsey MP when she swept aside the Tory candidate, Tim Palmer, who seemed to be natural successor to tragic Conservative Michael Colvin.

It was the death of Mr Colvin and his wife Nichola in a house fire in February that resulted in the by-election.

And in a night of election drama, Southampton's Labour council lost overall control after 13 years.

For Mrs Gidley, 43, realisation of her win, with a majority of more than 3,000, only dawned as the ballot boxes were emptied.

She said: "The people of Romsey have spoken out for the people of Britain - and I'll now serve them to the best of my ability."

But while Tories suffered in Romsey, their support surged in local elections across the county and nationwide.

In Southampton they seized three seats from Labour which, alongside two gains for the opposition Liberal Democrats, helped create a hung council for the first time in 13 years.

The Labour leadership is expected this morning to hold urgent talks on whether to make overtures to opposition parties to form a coalition.

In Gosport, Tories seized three seats to become the largest party on the borough council and nearby Fareham remained true-blue.

But in Winchester and Eastleigh, the Liberal Democrats remained solid to keep a tight hold on the authorities.

Nationally, the Tories gained more than 500 seats on local authorities - and Ken Livingstone was on course for a landslide victory in the race to become the first mayor of London.

ROMSEY BY-ELECTION RESULTS

Sandra Gidley (Lib-Dem) 19,571

Andrew Howard (Lab) 1,451

Tom Lamont (Ind) 109

Derrick Large (LCA) 417

Tim Palmer (Con) 16,260

Garry Rankin-Moore (UKIP) 901

Majority 3,311

Lib Dem Gain

SEE INSIDE TONIGHT'S DAILY ECHO FOR LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS, VIEWS AND ANALYSIS

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.