A desperate night for Major: Tories forced into third place in three by-elections as Liberal Democrats storm Eastleigh and Labour majorities soar

RATTLED Cabinet ministers were preparing an urgent damage limitation exercise early today as the Liberal Democrats piled the pressure on John Major's leadership by overturning a 17,000 majority to win the Eastleigh by-election and push the Tories into a humiliating third place.

The Liberal Democrats' victory - by a majority of 9,239 votes - in the Hampshire seat not only saw the Tories pushed from first to third place in a by-election for the first time since 1958, but also provided a handsome and unexpected bonus for Labour, which held second place with a 27.6 per cent share of the vote.

As the Tories saw their vote slump in most of the night's four signal Labour by-election victories in Bradford and East London there was a startling success for the extreme right in Dagenham where the overtly racist British National Party's candidate, John Tyndall, held his deposit with 1,511 votes.

Last night's defeats in five by-elections foreshadow one of Mr Major's most difficult weeks since he came to power in 1990. Eastleigh was the third by-election loss of a safe Southern seat to the Liberal Democrats in 13 months. Outside Eastleigh, however it was Labour's night. Labour were jubilant over the first by-election result, Bradford South, which it won by 9,664 votes - almost double its 1992 majority - and where the Tories were also pushed into third place - this time by the Liberal Democrats. Labour's share of the vote was 55 per cent - compared to 24 for the Liberal Democrats and 18 for the Tories.

In Barking,where the swing to Labour was a remarkable 20 per cent, the party's candidate, Margaret Hodge, took the seat on a significantly lower turnout than in 1992, but with a markedly increased majority of 11,414. In Newham North East - the constituency rocked by the eve-of-poll defection to Labour of the Liberal Democrat candidate, Alec Kellaway - Labour won the seat by 11,818 votes. The Liberal Democrat vote slumped to 821 votes and a lost deposit.

Party strategists were using the by- election results - which could scarecly have been bleaker for the Tories - in an effort to compute the probable scale of even grimmer losses expected when the results of yesterday's voting in 87 European seats are announced on Sunday night and Monday. A newspaper exit poll of the key European Parliament seat of Norfolk suggested a decisive gain for Labour.

The jubilant Liberal Candidate in Eastleigh, David Chidgey, said that the electors in the seat had 'sent a powerful message to the government'. He added that the signal to John Major was: 'change your policies or change your job. 'In many areas we are now the only hope and the only alternative to the Conservatives.' But John Denham, Labour MP for the neighbouring seat of Itchen said - despite a numerical drop in the Labour vote - that the result and Labour's percentage share showed that his party 'can undoubtedly win seats in the South at the next general election'.

Senior ministers were lined up for a series of weekend interviews to drive home the message that Mr Major has no intention of standing down after the Tories' worst mid-term rebuff in 15 years. Last night, Michael Portillo, the Treasury chief Secretary, acknowledged the Opposition successes in the by-elections but predicted that Eastleigh would return to the Tories at the next General Election. The Tories had shown in the past that they did not 'throw up their hands in horror' at setbacks but 'stuck to their policies and saw them through'.

The turn out in Eastleigh was only 58.9 per cent and was said to be low in European election polling, although Liberal Democrat strategists suggested it could prove better than expected in their own West Country strongholds.

Labour had sought to seize the initiative in Eastleigh with a leaflet in the wake of Mr Kellaway's statement on Wednesday insisting that 'many' Liberal Democrat supporters and undecided voters in Eastleigh had already switched their support to Marilyn Birks, the Labour candidate.

The campaign ended in acrimony as the Liberal Democrats protested angrily about a second Labour leaflet using a crude projection of national opinion polling to claim, against all local predictions, that Labour stood to win Eastleigh by 6,000 votes.

The Liberal Democrats were treating with caution a European election exit poll carried out by West Country Television which suggested that they had secured 35 per cent of the popular vote in the region. The exit poll of 4,500 voters put the Tories at 32, and Labour at 27. Meanwhile, the Norfolk poll, carried out by the Eastern Daily Press, showed Labour comfortably winning the seat with 52.7 per cent of the vote.

----------------------------------------------------------------- BRADFORD SOUTH ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ronnie Farley (C) . . . . . .5,475 Gerry Sutcliffe (Lab) . . . .17,014 Helen Wright (LD) . . . . . . 7,350 Keith Laycock (Nat Law) . . . . 187 Lord Sutch (Loony) . . . . . . .727 Lab majority . . . . . . . . .9,664 Turnout . . . . . . . . . . . . .45% General election, 1992: Bob Cryer (Lab) 25,185; Andrew Popat (C) 20,283; Brian Boulton (LD) 7,243; Mohammad Naseem (Islamic) 156. Lab maj 4,902. ----------------------------------------------------------------- BARKING ----------------------------------------------------------------- Theresa May (C) . . . . . . . .1,976 Margaret Hodge (Lab) . . . . .13,704 Garry White (LD) . . . . . . . 2,290 Gerard Batten (UK Indep) . . . .406 Heather Butensky (Nat Law) . . . .90 Garry Needs (Nat Front) . . . . .551 Lab majority . . . . . . . . .11,414 Turnout . . . . . . . . . . . .38.58% General election, 1992: Jo Richardson (Lab) 18,224; John Kennedy (C) 11,956; Steve Churchman (LD) 5,133. Lab maj 6,268. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NEWHAM NORTH EAST ----------------------------------------------------------------- Philip Hammond (C) . . . . . . . .2,850 Stephen Timms (Lab) . . . . . . .14,668 Alec Kellaway (LD) . . . . . . . . .821 Richard Archer (Nat Law) . . . . . .228 Vida Garman (Buy Daily Sport). . . .155 Jo Homeless (House Homeless) . . . .342 Anthony Scholefield (UK Indep). . . 509 Lab majority . . . . . . . . . . 11,818 Turnout . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.37% General election, 1992: Ron Leighton (Lab) 20,952; Jeremy Galbraith (C) 10,966; Jonathan Aves (Lib Dem) 4,020. Lab maj 9,986. ----------------------------------------------------------------- EASTLEIGH ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen Reid (C) . . . . . . . . . 13,675 Marilyn Birks (Lab) . . . . . . . .15,234 David Chidgey (LD). . . . . . . . .24,473 Lord David Sutch (Loony) . . . . . . .783 Nigel Farage (UK Indep) . . . . . . . 952 Peter Warburton (Nat Law) . . . . . . 145 Lib Dem majority . . . . . . . . . .9,239 Turnout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.9% General election, 1992: Stephen Milligan (C) 38,998; David Chidgey (LD) 21,296; Jo Sugrue (Lab) 15,768. C maj 17,702

----------------------------------------------------------------- DAGENHAM ----------------------------------------------------------------- James Fairrie (C) . . . . . . . . . 2,130 Judith Church (Lab) . . . . . . . .15,474 Peter Dunphy (LD) . . . . . . . . . 1,804 Peter Compobassi (UK Indep) . . . . . 457 Mark Leighton (Nat Law) . . . . . . . 116 John Tyndall (BNP) . . . . . . . . .1,511 Lab majority . . . . . . . . . . . 13,344 Turnout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.2% General election, 1992: Bryan Gould (Lab) 22,027; Don Rossiter (C) 15,294; Charles Marquand (LD) 4,824. Lab maj 6,733 -----------------------------------------------------------------

Labour harvest, page 2

European elections, page 11

Leading article, page 17

My Week, page 18

(Photograph omitted)