Speaking during the count he said: "For the last 25 years, Labour, in the by-elections, have always been very far ahead.

"In Bromley, two years ago, they almost beat us and that was a safer seat than this one.

"We had lots of people on the doorstep and it has really picked up over the last weekend.

"We can tell from the first few boxes that Labour are low down and the Labour vote goes to the Liberal Democrats."

Speaking after the result announcement, Mr Rait said: "This is the first time we have stood in this constituency and we have made a great deal of progress in this one election - even beating the Labour candidate.

"We feel this is a start for us in this constituency and it's very meaningful and encouraging.

"Having started off in this way, we currently intend that we should build on this."

Speaking about whether he plans to stand again, he continued: "It depends on what elections come up at the time in the future but we are looking forward to the general election.

"We also look forward to taking our party further forward when the next election comes up.

"In the meantime, we will be building up a support base and plan to hold meetings for those supporters."

When the results were read out to candidates, a member of the crowd called the BNP 'Nazis'.

Speaking about the incident Mr Rait said: "It's completely uncreditable.
"Boris (Johnson) had no relation to reality and I was competing in terms of democracy," he added of his party's campaign.

"We are very pleased. We did come in fourth and we nearly came in at third place, especially as the Greens are a longer established party.
"We want to protect the environment and the English countryside that we all love."