London: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has suffered a major defeat in the Brent East by-election as voters apparently punished the government for the Iraq war and the state of public services with a 29 percentage point swing to the Liberal Democrats.

Labour's loss of a "safe seat" in one of its inner-city heartlands will increase pressure on Blair to change the party's direction, party sources said on September 19.

The ruling party got only 33.8 per cent of the vote in the North West London constituency as against 63.2 per cent in the 2001 general election.

Ministers admitted the defeat marked a low point in Labour's fortunes, with public confidence in the government at its lowest since 1997.

But they characterised the surge in the support for the Liberal-Democrats as a simply a "by-election blip". The "bad result" was a "mid-term protest vote", Nick Raynsford, the local government minister, said.

The election of 29-year-old Lib-Dem candidate Sarah Teather as the youngest MP will barely dent Labour's Commons majority.

But the psychological impact is significant. The defeat leaves Blair to face the party conference later this month as the first Labour leader to lose a by-election for 15 years, sources conceded.

PTI