Glen Hearnden has held the Harrow-on-the-Hill seat for Labour against a strong challenge from Conservatives in a close by-election.

The results followed a month of campaigning for the Harrow Borough Council seat leading up to yesterday’s election, caused by the resignation of the seat's previous Labour councillor Ann Gate.

Mr Hearnden was announced as a winner after two hours of counting at the council Civic Centre, with a 29.2 per cent turnout and a total of 2,565 votes cast.

He said: “I am truly elated by the result and I’m just over the moon. We have worked so hard on this campaign and thank you to everyone who helped and put such a huge effort in.

“I think this shows our message is really connecting with people and people are concerned about the cost of living.”

Leader of Harrow Labour group Councillor David Perry said: “All the parties and the candidates really went for this election and this result shows that Labour’s message is really getting through to people ahead of next year’s election.”

The new councillor won with 991 votes, beating the Conservative candidate Stephen Lewis, who received 836.

Independent candidate Eileen Kinnear received 308 votes and Independent Labour’s Dr Gajan Idaikkadar polled 173. UKIP’s Jeremy Zeid received 168 and Liberal Democrat Gaye Branch 70.

A total of 19 votes were rejected.