TONY Blair led the Labour Party to a record third term in office after increasing his majority in his Sedgefield constitutency.

But his success locally was not matched in the rest of the country with the Government's overall majority reduced from 161 to 66.

At his count it emerged that the anti-war candidate Reg Keys had failed to put a dent in Mr Blair's majority. He polled 24,429 votes, an increased majority of 18,457.

As he took to the stage in Trimdon Labour Club in the early hours of Friday morning, Mr Blair's Sedgefield faithful burst into a loud, joyous rendition of Happy Birthday and the 52-year-old beamed the grin the Tories had hoped to wipe from his face.

"To be elected once can be difficult, as we found," he said. "To be elected twice is something, in consecutive terms of office, this party never knew before. To be reelected for a third term is very special.

He went on: "And it actually began here in Sedgefield, here where we learnt that we had to reconnect with the lives of people, here where we learnt that our values were fantastic and were the values of the British people - but we had to learn how to apply them in the modern world."

His agent, John Burton, said: "It's a great victory in this constituency because, despite the rubbish and the venom thrown at us by the media and some of the candidates, we have increased our majority."

Margaret Thatcher was the last Prime Minister to win three consecutive terms, the Labour Party had never achieved this before.