Labour's David Lepper held the Brighton Pavilion seat for the third successive time today with a reduced majority.

Mr Lepper picked up 15,427 votes with the Tories' Mike Weatherley second with 10,397.

But the surprise of the evening was the Green Party's Keith Taylor who polled a record 9,530 votes.

The Green's result was more than three times the number of votes polled by the party's candidate in the seat in 2001.

Mr Lepper said: "People have voted for Labour's commitment to invest in public services, particularly education and also to tackle climate change and help the poorest countries in the world.

"The people of Brighton Pavilion have had the chance to make history today and they did it by returning a Labour MP for the third successive time."

Mr Weatherley paid tribute to the other candidates for fighting a clean election campaign.

He said: "I hope to stand again next time for the Conservatives."

He added that the Greens had come third and not second or first.

But that did not seem to dull Mr Taylor's jubilation about his record-breaking result.

Mr Taylor said: "The real winners here are the Green Party.

"Our vote has gone from ten percent to 22 per cent and Brighton is turning green.

"Voters want to see climate change taken seriously, they are fed up with the privatisation of public services and they are angry about Iraq. They have made Brighton and Hove the greenest city in the country."

Hazel Thorpe, the Liberal Democrat candidate, was pushed into fourth place.

Mr Lepper will have plenty of issues to address.

There is a shortage of secondary schools in the constituency, a huge demand for affordable homes and mobile phone masts are also a hot issue.

But he can count on the support of his wife, Brighton and Hove city councillor Jeanne Lepper, who attended the count.

She said: "I had no inkling about how it was going to go but David is a damned good MP."

Elected: David Lepper (L) 15,427.

Not elected: Mike Weatherley (C) 10,397, Keith Taylor (G) 9,530, Hazel Thorpe (LD) 7,171, Kimberley Comotto (UKIP) 508, Tony Greenstein (Alliance for Green Socialism) 188, Ian Fyvie (Socialist Labour Party) 152, Christopher Rooke (I) 122, Keith Jago (I) 42.

Turnout: 63.9 per cent.

Majority: 5,030.