BARRY Gardiner has held his Brent North seat for Labour with a majority of 8,028.

More than 11 hours after the count was due to start the result finally came through at around 10.40am to the sound of ecstatic cheers from the party's campaign team.

Mr Gardiner was defending a 5,600 majority gained in 2005 but bucked the national trend of a swing to the Conservative Party.

Harshadbhai Patel, his Tory rival, gained 16,486 votes while James Allie attracted 8,879 for the Lib Dems.

The result comes after a night of substantial Tory gains, but the Conservatives did not make enough ground to allow the party to form a government without the help of at least one coalition partner.

Tony McNulty fell to Conservative Bob Blackman in Harrow East but Gareth Thomas held on to his seat for Labour in Harrow West.

More to follow.