City still held by Labour

Tony Blair claimed a record-breaking General Election victory and his party hung on to constituencies across East and West Sussex despite the Tories cutting into the share of the vote.

The Greens also claimed success by taking a large number of votes away from their rivals.

Liberal Democrats held on to Lewes when Norman Baker claimed his third term victory.

The battle for Lewes had been considered a two-horse race between Mr Baker and Tory candidate Rory Love but in the end the Lib Dems scored an 8,474 majority.

Mr Blair's Labour Party was re-elected in Brighton and Hove - but only by the skin of its teeth.

The city's three Labour candidates were elected with reduced majorities after voters turned out in large numbers.

The Conservatives made some inroads into the Labour vote but the biggest gains were made by the Lib Dems and the Greens.

The battle for Hove and Portslade had been billed as the closest election contest in Sussex, although Crawley took that crown 12 hours later after two recounts.

When Hove and Portslade's result was announced after a partial recount, Labour's Celia Barlow was proclaimed winner by a margin of 420 votes. It compared comfortably with the 37 votes which later decided Crawley.

Labour had expected some losses in the Hove and Portslade seat as people turned to other parties in protest against the Government's invasion of Iraq.

The surprise success of last night in Brighton and Hove was the Green Party, which almost doubled its vote in Hove and Kemptown and almost trebled its vote in Pavilion.

Pavilion Green candidate Keith Taylor, who polled just under 10,000 votes in what was the party's best ever national result, said: "Next time the party would be in a real position to win."

Labour MP Des Turner regained his seat for a third successive term and, like the national party, won with a reduced majority.

Tory candidate Judith Symes came close behind him with just 2,757 votes between them.

The count at Hove Town Hall was disturbed at one stage during the night when police arrested three people for public order offences outside.

Tory Tim Loughton had to wait to be sure of his third term in East Worthing and Shoreham - counting did not start until after 2am.

He had faced Labour's Daniel Yates, Lib Dem James Doyle, former mayor of Worthing, UKIP's Richard Jelf and Chris Baldwin, the Legalise Cannabis Alliance candidate.

It was a similar story in Horsham, where Francis Maude was made to wait for news of his victory, ahead of Lim Dem Rosie Sharpley in second place. The seat has been a Tory stronghold for 41 years.

Mr Maude said: "We have given ourselves a really good platform from which we can hope to win next time."

The other candidates were Jim Duggan for People's Peace Party, Martin Jeremiah for People of Horsham and UKIP's Hugo Miller.

A 60% turnout was blamed for delays in the result at Arundel & South Downs.

Conservative candidate Nick Herbert, former head of a think tank, picked up the seat vacated by Howard Flight shortly before the election.

But the Lib Dems had pushed their share up by 4.5%. Their candidate Derek Deedman had been hoping for 15,000 votes, in part from the uncertainty caused by Mr Flight's departure: he finished on 13,443.

They had faced Labour candidate Sharon Whitlam, Andrew Moffat from UKIP and Protest Vote Party candidate Mark Stack, who protested by not turning up to the count at Storrington Leisure Centre.

Eastbourne remained Tory but sitting MP Nigel Waterson's majority over Lib Dem challenger Stephen Lloyd was shaved from 2,154 to 1,124.

The result was a disappointment for Lib Dem campaigners who had earmarked the seat as their eighth most winnable nationwide.

Mr Waterson gained 21,033 votes, ahead of Mr Lloyd's 19,909 and comfortably ahead of third-placed Labour challenger Andrew Jones who polled 5,268 votes.

As anticipated in Bexhill and Battle, it was a straight battle between Tories and Lib Dems: Gregory Barker increased an already massive Tory majority as he romped home with a ten per cent swing from Labour putting his majority up from 10,500 in 2001 to around 13,500.

In West Worthing, veteran Tory MP Peter Bottomley had a convincing victory over the Lib Dems. He held the seat with a majority of 9,379 over Lib Dem Claire Potter who polled a respectable 12,004 votes.

There was no change in Hastings and Rye either, with sitting Labour MP Michael Foster earning a third term, albeit with a smaller majority.

He polled 18,107 votes, just ahead of Conservative rival Mark Coote who gained 16,081.

Victory for Mr Foster, 59, meant he retained the seat he first won in 1997. For Mr Coote, the result was a disappointment for the second general election running.

The Tories nationally had marked out Hastings and Rye as a key marginal, aiming to pick up votes from disenchanted Labour voters.

Nicholas Soames unsurprisingly held his seat in Mid Sussex. The Conservative MP saw his majority decrease by around 1,000 votes while Lib Dem Serena Tierney increased her party's share by 3,623.

Labour suffered a drop of more than 2,000 votes.

Laughing as the votes were announced, Nicholas Soames congratulated his opponents "for a good and fair fight".

Wealden's 67.7% turnout kept the Charles Hendry waiting. He put on 2.3% share to hold the seat for the Conservatives with 28,975 and clear blue water separating him from Lib Dem Christopher Wigley on 13,054 and Dudley Rose for Labour on 9,360. Julian Salmon added 1.5% share to the Green vote and Keith Riddle pulled up another 0.9% for UKIP.

In the end all eyes were on Crawley as it went to two recounts and the slimmest of margins between the Labour victor, Laura Moffat, on 16,411 down 10.2%, and Conservative Henry Smith on 16,374 up 6.8%. Also waiting were Lib Dem Rupert Sheard on 6,503, BNP Richard Trower, Ronald Walters for UKIP, Robin Burnham for Democratic Socialist Alliance and Arshad Khan's Justice Party poll of 210.