8:27am UK, Friday June 30, 2006

Labour may have suffered a second crushing defeat in the heartlands as indications point towards an Independent candidate taking the Blaenau Gwent seat.

Ballots are being counted in mid-term by-elections in the south Wales constituency.

180 Dai Davies, indpendent candidate Blaenau Gwent

Mr Davies, Independent

The results are expected to be announced at around 3am but so far, experts say it looks like Dai Davies has taken the seat.

The Assembly seat is also up for grabs and Labour has been hoping to recapture its majority.

Welsh Assembly leader Rhodri Morgan is said to be so nervous about not regaining the majority that he was knocking on doors in Blaenau Gwent as late as 8.30pm.

Voters at Bromley and Chislehurst, south east London, are also returning an MP to Westminster.

The Blaenau Gwent contests were triggered by the death of Peter Law, who captured the south Wales socialist fortress in a landslide result that shocked Labour last year.

Mr Law had quit Labour in protest over all-women candidate shortlists as a woman was parachuted in to the stronghold that had never had a non-Labour MP.

But he refused to stand aside and stood instead as an independent candidate at the General Election.

Mr Law turned a majority of more than 19,000 into a 9,121 margin for himself days after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.

His widow Trish is fighting for the Assembly seat, which he had defended for Labour in 2003.

Tory leader David Cameron faces his first major Commons challenge inthe by-election at Bromley and Chislehurst.