A KENT Labour MP insists the party can recover from the bloody nose it suffered at the hands of voters in time to win the next general election.

Chatham and Aylesford MP Jonathan Shaw admitted the results of the local elections were poor but stressed that it did not mean that Labour’s prospects for the next general election could be written off.

Mr Blair has embarked on a wide-ranging reshuffle that has seen Home Secretary Charles Clarke sacked and a new job for education secretary Ruth Kelly.

John Prescott remains deputy Prime Minister but has lost responsibility for overseeing the growth agenda for Ashford and north Kent. That job will go to Ruth Kelly in a new local government department.

Mr Shaw said: "Obviously, we are not in the best position we have ever been in for the last nine years but the same kind of question about our fortunes could have been asked in 2004 when we lost heavily at the local elections and then went on to win the general election."

"Our share of the vote this time was broadly the same as 2004 so, yes, it is a position I think we can recover from and we have done so before but that does not mean the task ahead is straighforward. The results were bad but they are not the meltdown some people predicted."

The key issues were to maintain the stability of the economy and to deliver on public sector reforms, he added.

Mr Shaw, who is parliamentary private secretary to former education secretary Ruth Kelly, said her new role as the head of a new local government department, was good news for Kent in terms of the growth agenda for parts of the county.

Meanwhile, Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent Hugh Roberston, said that while the party’s results were a good step forward, more progress was needed in other parts of the country.

"It was a good night of positive progress. The disappointment is that we did not do better in the conurbations in the north of the country and we do need a good local government base to make progress there.

"I would not say we are odds on to win the next general election but our chances of doing so have been much improved," he said.