PETER Pike celebrated his fifth successive General Election victory in Burnley - but the win was tarnished by concern over the size of the vote for the far right wing British National Party.

More than 8,000 voters snubbed the polls compared with the '97 election and the MP suffered most from the drastically-reduced turnout.

Mr Pike's last general election before retirement saw his majority slashed by 6,500 votes to just 10,498 over Tory rival Robert Frost.

It was the biggest fall in the Labour vote since Mr Pike's first victory in 1983.

But the Turf Moor count was buzzing with concern over the size of the vote for British National Party candidate Steven Smith.

The Burnley accountant polled 4,151 votes in his party's first General Election outing in the constituency -- an outcome neither the Labour nor Tory contenders could ignore in their summing up speeches.

Conservative Mr Frost was cock-a-hoop over the way his vote held up, defying forecasts and providing the massive incursion in the Labour majority only he had predicted.

Liberal Democrat candidate Paul Wright came home third with just under 6,000 votes -- almost 2,000 down on the last election -- but a result the Burnley milkman hailed as "brilliant in the circumstances". Victorious Mr Pike said there were a number of things in the result which could not be ignored and which people would have to think about extremely carefully -- and not only the low 56 per cent turnout.

He said: "We have to look into the BNP vote. It is worrying and a lot of their vote came from Labour."

He added: "There are things we must analyse very carefully."

He said people should be aware of the dangers of the far right and remember what happened during the Second World War.

Software sales manager Mr Frost, 33, added: "We must be diligent to the danger of extremist parties."

The young Worsthorne-bred Tory hailed the Conservative result as "a great victory" said the Labour vote had collapsed, making the Conservative Party the clear alternative for disillusioned voters.

Mr Smith, 40, who had run a gauntlet of a small Anti Nazi League protest outside Turf Moor left quickly after the result.

But he said the outcome for his party had far exceeded expectations.

"I believe the people of Burnley have identified with our message and we intend to build on this result."

Last place in the poll went to UK Independence Party candidate who trailed in with 880 votes, losing his deposit.