Andrew Smith has been returned as Oxford East MP, but only by the skin of his teeth.

His constituency, which has been Labour since 1987, is now truly a marginal seat with his 10,344 majority slashed to just 963 in the face of disillusionment with the Blair Government and opposition to his pro-war stance on Iraq.

In the minutes before the result was announced, the tension inside Oxford Town Hall was almost unbearable.

Mr Smith looked visibly shaken as ballot papers were stacked up throughout the night by tellers, with nothing to choose between him and his Liberal Democrat opponent Steve Goddard.

In the end, the result was much closer than anyone had expected.

A relieved Mr Smith, who was booed and heckled throughout his speech, said: "I never make predictions -- but I knew it would be a close fight. Of course the Iraq war had a big impact but as I have said before, in politics you have to make very difficult decisions. One vote would have been enough.

"I feel I have received a real mandate from the people of Oxford East, given the circumstances of the Iraq war. It is clear from results elsewhere this is quite a good result and I am as passionate as ever about representing the people of this constituency and I am so grateful to them."

Mr Smith is used to narrow victories and losses in General Election counts. In 1983 he lost the fight for Oxford East to Conservative Steve Norris by just 1,200 votes -- only to beat him by the same margin four years later.

But for the Liberal Democrats, who achieved a 11.8 per cent swing from Labour, it was so close -- yet so far.

A deflated Steve Goddard said: "We knew it would be close and this proves we can win next time round. I would not be human if I said I was not thinking about what could have been, but I am absolutely elated.

"It's an absolutely huge result for the Liberal Democrats because any way you look at it we have reduced the Labour majority to less than a 10th of its size.

"Andrew Smith has had a good innings, but it looks as though that will come to an end next time. We believe we can win and have shown our confidence was not misplaced."

Tory Virginia Morris polled 6,992 votes, claiming she had denied the Lib Dems a famous victory by holding her share of the vote.

Green candidate Jacob Sanders polled 1,813 while New Loony Honest Blair scooped a whopping 1,485, narrowly missing out on getting his £500 deposit back.

Maurice Leen, representing the Independent Working Class Association, returned 892 votes, Peter Gardner of the UK Independence Party managed 715 votes while Independent Pat Mylvaganam polled 46 votes.