LABOUR has held off a Ukip surge to win the Heywood and Middleton by-election, but its majority was cut to just 617.

Ed Miliband's party's majority had been almost 6,000 in 2010, but a Ukip surge saw a 17.65% swing to Nigel Farage's party.

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Rawtenstall's Liz McInnes retained the seat for Labour in a contest triggered by the death of former MP Jim Dobbin.

On a turnout of just 36%, Ms McInnes won with 11,633 votes, defeating Ukip's John Bickley on 11,016.

Mr Bickley said: "Labour are in big trouble. This should have been a safe seat. They have thrown everything at it and they have only just scraped home.

"We would not have predicted four weeks ago to get so close.

"Most of the voters here in this constituency, particular the Labour voters, feel betrayed by the Labour Party. These are people who have been in the Labour Party all their lives and they look at the Labour Party and it no longer represents them.

"Another couple of days and I would have won this. We would have won a week from now on the back of Clacton."

Ms McInnes said: "I am proud to have been selected as the new MP for Heywood and Middleton. Our vote held up, we had not anticipated the Tory vote collapsing quite so dramatically. But our core voters turned out. We didn't take anyone's votes for granted and we have run a very strong positive campaign."

Asked if she expected Ukip to run have Labour so close, she said: "To be honest with you I have been through more or less every scenario. As I said before, we don't take anyone's vote for granted. We work very hard and I am just pleased our vote held up. We can't choose our opponents.

"I am proud and honoured to have been selected for this area. I am not disappointed that the majority has been reduced. I knew this was going to be a tough fight and we have run a really strong positive campaign and we have fought for every single vote."