Labour held on to its safe seat in Ealing Southall with the Conservatives trailing in third place in the first election since Gordon Brown has become Prime Minister.

Labour MP Virendra Sharma stormed to victory with15,188 votes, followed by Nigel Bakhai's 10,118 for the Liberal Democrats.

Tony Lit, who was listed on the ballot paper as standing for "David Cameron's Conservatives", pulled in 8,230 votes.

The result is a blow for Mr Cameron, who visited the west London constituency five times in the fiercely contested race for the second place.

The Conservative leader was hoping to regain the support he lost after a damaging row over grammar schools. Labour's "Brown bounce" in the polls, caused by optimism after the accession of the new Prime Minister, also hampered his momentum.

However, the Tories' hopes were crippled by last-minute revelations that Mr Lit had donated almost £5,000 to Labour days before he became the Conservative candidate.

The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, rejoiced over their second place.

Their candidate, Mr Bakhai, said: "The real disappointment in this by-election is for David Cameron. He put his name on the ballot paper and he came third."

The LibDem leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, said the result proved "three-party politics is here to stay".

Mr Bakhai had increased the LibDems' share of the vote by just over 3%, while Mr Lit increased the Tories' share by less than 1%.

Mr Lit said: "This is a positive result for the Conservative Party. Yes, we haven't won it but we have moved in the right direction.

"David Cameron's Conservative Party is the 21st century party and it is the party which is going to be governing after the next General Election, I firmly believe it."

Despite the fact that the Labour majority was halved from 2005, the night was still being seen as a victory for the Labour party - who also held their seat in Sedgefield, County Durham - the seat of former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Labour's victorious Mr Sharma said: "This is a great result for our new Prime Minister Gordon Brown and it is a humiliating rebuke from Britain's most diverse constituency to David Cameron's Conservatives.

"David Cameron staked his reputation on this by-election and the people of Southall and Ealing have given their verdict tonight. We don't trust the Tories to represent us. They don't stand for us."

The married father of two and grandfather of three said he was honoured to serve Ealing Southall.

RESULTS AT A GLANCE

Virendra Sharma (Lab) 15,188
Nigel Bakhai (LD) 10,118
Tony Lit (C) 8,230
Sarah Edwards (Green) 1,135
Salvinder Dhillon (Respect) 588
Dr Kunnathur Rajan (UKIP) 285
Yaqub Masih (Ch P) 280
Jasdev Rai (Ind) 275
John Cartwright (Loony) 188
Sati Chaggar (Eng Dem) 152
Gulbash Singh (Ind) 92
Kuldeep Grewal (Ind) 87

Lab maj 5,070