LABOUR MP Bob Marshall-Andrews will be needing a big spoon to eat his humble pie this morning.

After hinting at an early defeat early on in the count, Mr Marshall-Andrews kept control of his Medway seat after Conservative candidate Mark Reckless called for a re-count at 3.15am.

The rebel MP won his seat around 4.45am with 17,333 votes to Mr Reckless’s 17,120 - a majority of 113.

Earlier in the night Mr Marshall-Andrews gave interviews with local and national media and said his loss would "cheer Mr Blair up".

He blamed Blair directly for the anger against the Labour party and said voters had become disillusioned after the war in Iraq and plans to build an airport at Cliffe.

He said: "It is very difficult to seperate national issues from local issues, but it is down to our Prime Minister. There is a haemorrhaging of votes but if I lose tonight, the Prime Minister will let out a cheer because he will be glad to see me go."

He continued his attack against the Prime Minister and predicted a swift change in leadership. He also spat venom against his main competitor, Mark Reckless, who he said had led a "dirty tricks campaign" against him.

He referred to a radio recording which had been distributed by the Conservatives where he spoke about his views on the proposed airport at Cliffe and which, he said, had also suggested to voters that he had spent his time in Hong Kong during the campaign - a trip which he took in 1998.

During his acceptance speech he congratulated candidates Geoff Juby (Lib Dem) and Bob Oakley (UKIP) but refused to offer the same praise to Mr Reckless.

He said: "This has been a difficult and hard count. I thank the people of Medway who have given me this really important job for the next eight years."

He said Geoff Juby and Bob Oakley had fought hard and had been tremendous on the streets, but "as for the Conservative candidate, my views on this particular person are well known and I am not going to say them again here."