Labour have comfortably won the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election with a majority of more than 3,500.

Throughout the campaign there was speculation that the Conservative party were giving their Liberal Democrat coalition partners an easy ride in the vote.

But Baroness Warsi, co-chairperson of the Conservative party attacked those within her own party who criticised the campaign, saying that unless you were "knocking on doors...you don't have a right to complain".

"We never attacked the Liberal Democrat party but we never campaigned for them either," she said.

For their part, the Liberal Democrats felt that they "fought a very strong campaign" which "nudged up our share of the result" according to deputy leader Simon Hughes.

"We are absolutely not a client party," he said, denying that the lack of an aggressive campaign against them by the Conservatives meant they were in their debt.

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