Miliband: Oldham 'clear message' to coalition

Ed Miliband has said that voters have sent a "very clear message" to the coalition Government in response to the Oldham by-election result.

Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins failed to take the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat, despite the sitting Labour MP Phil Woolas being disqualified for lying about his opponent in the 2010 General election.

The Conservative party was accused of deliberetely running a low-key campaign to help the Lib Dems.

Tory Party chairman Baroness Warsi denied this saying, ""I led this campaign and every resource was put into it."

Defending her party, she added: "We never attacked the Liberal Democrat Party but we never campaigned for them either."

The Labour campaign was overseen by Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham, who cited Mr Miliband's decision to visit the constituency three times as a determining factor for the victory.

"While Ed was in the hills in Saddleworth, Tory ministers were on the skiing slopes in Klosters," he said.

Liberal Democrat candidate Mr Watkins polled 11,160 votes to Labour opponent Debbie Abrahams' 14,718.

Tory candidate Kashif Ali scored just 4,481 votes.