FOLLOWING an eventful election campaign, which saw St Helens thrust into the national spotlight after the controversial selection of former Tory Shaun Woodward as the Labour candidate for St Helens South, the town hall played host to a veritable media circus last Thursday.

On the day when a disappointing turnout saw barely half of the St Helens electorate bothering to cast their vote, eleven of the twelve candidates were present to witness the eagerly awaited results which were released shortly after 1am.

And a touch of glamour was brought to the proceedings as Shaun Woodward was joined by his close friend Esther Rantzen and wife Camilla Sainsbury, heiress to the supermarket fortune.

Wearing a party-red satin frock coat, Camilla was by her husband's side throughout the evening, saying little but smiling eagerly for the hordes of photographers who were keen to capture the duo. And Camilla was the first to congratulate her husband when the results were announced.

There were few surprises in two of the staunchest Labour strongholds in the country, but votes in St Helens South were down to their lowest since the constituency was formed in 1983.

In St Helens North, where 52 per cent of people voted, Labour's Dave Watts secured his seat for a second term, with a disappointing majority of 15, 901, down 7, 516 from 1997.

Conservative Simon Pearce (7,076) held second place over the Liberal Democrat's John Beirne (6,609).

The Liberal Democrat candidate for St Helens North said he was very pleased with the result, saying that the Liberal Democrats are the main opposition party to Labour and John put the low turn out down to the fact that people felt 'let down by Labour.'

But said: "We look forward to next year's local elections and building on our success."

But Shaun Woodward's plea to rivals after winning St Helens South is...Now let's put aside our differences and start to work for St Helens. Lib Dems pledge 'We will be back.

It was only natural that much of the attention was focused on the St Helens South result with seven challengers lining up to take on Shaun Woodward in his bid for the seat.

Following a stormy campaign, the Labour candidate was able to secure one of the safest seats in the country, but Woodward's opposition and a 51.6 per cent turnout combined to reduce the Labour majority by almost 13,000.

After being announced the victor by returning officer Vivienne Horton, Woodward gave a courageous acceptance speech in front of a vociferous audience. Talking above heckling from the floor, Shaun Woodward said that his victory was an extremely proud moment in his life and one that he accepted with "great humility and a great sense of responsibility and a very strong sense of what needs to be done."

He accepted that it had been a tough campaign, but urged local people to put aside their political differences and to work for the people of St Helens South.

He put the plight of the Ravenhead workers as one of his top priorities, amidst other "real issues" including jobs, careers for youngsters, schools and hospitals. And there was mention of the new Saints rugby ground.

Reacting to Woodward's victory, some other candidates expressed anger, saying that they could not accept the stance of the former Tory and were determined to pursue their fight in the next election.

Each candidate thanked their agents and co-workers and expressed their gratitude to the people of St Helens who did vote.

And in their finishing speeches, most candidates said that they were pleased with their own achievements.

The Liberal Democrat's Brian Spencer, achieved outstanding success by moving up to second place behind Labour, with 7,814 votes. Conservative Lee Rotherham polled 4,675.

Spencer was "ecstatic" with his own result and said that it proved that the Labour party could not take their St Helens voters for granted and was confident of victory in the next election.

Conservative Lee Rotherham said that he was disappointed with their result, but insisted that they would continue the fight in the next election, stressing that there was still a lot to fight for. He thanked everyone who had helped him through the campaign, urging Conservative supporters to "keep the faith".

The newly-formed Socialist Alliance party also made a considerable impact in achieving 2,325 votes and Neil Thompson said that with more exposure he was confident that he would be able to attract more of the socialist voters in the future.