LABOUR is suffering after a general election night short on success but Dudley North came good for the battered party.

Sitting MP Ian Austin was high on UKIP’s hit list ahead of polling day but he bucked the national trend by not only surviving but increasing his majority.

At a drama-packed election count in Dudley Town Hall the UKIP challenge faded and Conservative Les Jones emerged as the main threat to Mr Austin.

Although the Labour man increased his majority from 649 to a much healthier 4,181, his celebrations were muted by bad news for his party from around the UK.

Mr Austin said: “I’m very grateful to people in Dudley for giving me the opportunity to serve the town and stand up and fight for them for another five years but results elsewhere don’t seen so good so it’s a mixed picture.”

He would not speculate on the effect a controversy over the proposed new mosque in Dudley had on the Conservative bid to oust him, instead choosing to pay tribute to Les Jones, who joined the campaign with just a few weeks to go after original candidate Afzal Main resigned.

Mr Austin said: “I don’t know really, obviously it didn’t help them but Les Jones is a good guy, somebody I like and respect and he is a good candidate.”

Former Dudley Council leader Les Jones was pleased with his performance, polling 11,704 votes from a 62.8 per cent turn out He said: "I thought it might have been closer but I'm pleased with a solid second place.

"Of course with a bit more time we would certainly have done better and the tide could have turned our way."

UKIP’s Bill Etheridge started the campaign tipped as a potential winner but finished third with 9,113 votes however he refused to class the result as a failure.

Mr Etheridge said: “I’m disappointed not win but optimistic about the future, we have trebled our vote share from last time, we have learned a heck of a lot and fought a good campaign, We have been positive - life goes on and we will come back stronger.

“I’m not sure trebling the vote can be classed too much as going wrong. The campaign has not been as strong nationally as it might have been, we haven’t had the media coverage we might have had nationally but that’s no excuse, we fought a strong local campaign.”

He added he would have liked to have seen UKIP leader Nigel Farage go head-to-haed with the Prime Minister.

Mr Etheridge said: “It would have been nice if we had a bit more chance for Nigel to debate, maybe debate against David Cameron. I think some of the scare tactics and negative campaigning from the Conservatives about the SNP struck home and took some of our vote.

“We will keep on being positive and put forward our view for the future.”