The men in the top hats were gone. The Labour candidate was nowhere to be seen. Only the 'Tory toff' was still in town.

David Cameron arrived for his fifth visit to Crewe today and found quite a lot had changed after a by-election upset that transformed Britain's political landscape.

Only hours before, Edward Timpson, the young barrister Labour campaigners had accused of being too posh, had overturned Gwyneth Dunwoody's substantial majority for a 7,860 majority of his own.

Flanked by a small army of supporters waving blue balloons, Mr Cameron cheerily greeted the victor and marched straight to the park bench in the town's market square where, only two weeks ago, he had issued a soapbox call to voters to turn the by-election into a referendum on the abilition of the 10p tax band.

He told supporters: "I am the first Conservative leader in almost 30 years to wake up to the news that we have gained a by-election. It is a pretty good feeling. It is great to be back here in Crewe now the men in top hats have gone.

"It was a fantastic result, a remarkable result, but there won't be a hint of triumphalism or one hint of complacency from this Conservative Party.

"I know that what happened last night, just as what happened in the local elections, is that thousands of people who have not voted Conservative before decided to come out and support us.

"People who sometimes do not vote all, people who vote Liberal, people who vote Labour, they have come to support us. They have put their trust in us and I want us to earn that trust. I want us to build the biggest coalition for change in our country that we can.

"I want to repay that trust by saying we do not want to win just because the Prime Minister isn't cutting it. We want to win because we have the right ideas for Britain's future, and that is what last night was all about".

Crewe, the mid-Cheshire railway town which had been staunch Labour since the Second World War, woke up to find itself, albeit briefly, at the epicentre of the UK political universe.

Shoppers and commuters milled around the run-down town centre much like any normal day but, the day before, enough Labour voters had switched to the Tories to suggest Gordon Brown has lost his grip on middle England.

For two weeks Tamsin Dunwoody, daughter of the late Gwyneth Dunwoody, the previous incumbent, the Labour candidate and the night's biggest loser, had been ever-present on the streets. She had repeated the mantra that she was a chip off her redoubtable mother's block.

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