Labour won a surprise victory in the Brunswick Park by-election yesterday.

Labour’s Andreas Ioannidis secured 50.8 per cent for the vote which represented a 13.25 per cent swing to Labour from Conservative.

The turnout was only 29 per cent but Councillor Ioannidis won 1,769 votes.

The Conservative candidate, Shaheen Kauser Mahmood, received 1,598 votes and the Liberal Democrat, Yahaya Dumba Kiingi, got 97 votes.

Cllr Ioannidis said: "I want to thank the residents of Brunswick Park for electing me to be their local councillor.

“I will work hard to try to deliver the pledges I made in this election, including better road safety measures on our streets, to protect Osidge Library from this Conservative council's attacks and support residents to get Friern Barnet Library re-opened.

“I will also continue to campaign to stop the private hire of our parks and the waste treatment plant on Pinkham Way. My aim is to always be on the side of local residents."

Cllr Ioannidis won the election on his pledges to campaign against cuts to policing, to improve road safety, to clean up town centres, to keep parking charges fair, to secure funding for local youth services and to oppose the private hire of parks.

He also pledged to fight the closure of local libraries, to campaign against the waste treatment plant at Pinkham Way and to oppose the One Barnet programme.

Cllr Alison Moore, Labour group leader and leader of the opposition, said: "This result is a damning indictment of the national Conservatives complete mishandling of the economy and the attack on our NHS.

“It is also a complete rejection of the local Conservatives' policies to privatise 70 per cent of council services, to cut children's centres, close day care centres and libraries, and hike up parking charges by an obscene amount in one year.

“Local people have elected a Labour councillor for the first time in ten years, they clearly want a change.

“There are no more no-go areas for Labour in this borough, this result is another step towards making a better Barnet for all."

The by-election was called following the death of Councillor Lynne Hillan on April 5, 2012.