Labour and the Liberal Democrats both lost seats in Southampton's local elections and the City now has a Conservative council with an overall majority.

John Denham said "It was always going to be a difficult election for us against the backdrop of the international credit crunch, food and fuel prices. 

"Locally the outrageous and untrue campaign about residents parking hit us quite badly.  In the area of residents' parking schemes it was the key local issue.

"Our own vote stayed strong but the Lib Dem vote collapsed and went to the Tories.

"But if we go from here, show the voters we have been listening to the things they are genuinely concerned about, show that we can address them, then we can and will win the next general election."