The House of Commons leader, Mrs Margaret Beckett, conceded last night that people were not yet enthused by the New Labour project, as ministers put a gloss on "disappointing" by-election results which saw the party hold Hamilton South and Wigan but with greatly reduced majorities.
However, Mrs Beckett insisted the Scottish National Party could only be disappointed at its failure to take Hamilton, despite the SNP hailing a "stunning" performance in which its candidate, Ms Annabelle Ewing, came within 556 votes of overturning Labour's 16,000 plus general election majority.
With an additional swing of just 1 per cent, Ms Ewing could have repeated her mother's famous nationalist triumph in the same seat in 1967. But that did not prevent her declaring victory in defeat. "We have taken the fifth safest Labour seat in Scotland and reduced their majority from 16,000. The Labour candidate has managed to lose 15,000 votes. There is no safe Labour seat in Scotland," she declared. "This is a sensational result for the SNP and a dreadful night for Labour. We are very much on the way to independence for our country."
And Mr Alex Salmond, the SNP leader - proclaiming "a dreadful night for Labour, one of their worst in Scottish politics" - said the swing of 22.6 per cent in Hamilton would translate into an overall majority for the SNP in the Scottish Parliament, and see Labour reduced to eight Westminster seats.
But with a turnout of just 41 per cent - and despite voter apathy, the disincentive provided by Labour's majority last time, and the mid-term tendency to protest vote - the Scottish Secretary, Dr John Reid, said: "We won it in a mid-term, in a small constituency, on a very low turnout. There were 12 candidates protesting, and I accept they do in mid-term. But what is quite clear is that the government is not unpopular."
However, Labour chiefs will continue to be worried about the trend within traditional heartlands, following a comfortable 6,729 victory over the Tories in Wigan but on a turnout of just 25 per cent. Mrs Beckett conceded that Labour had so far failed to get people more interested in politics, as it had claimed it would.
The by-election in Hamilton South was caused by the appointment of the former MP, now Lord George Robertson, as Secretary General of NATO, and in Wigan by the death of the former Northern Ireland front-bench spokesman, Mr Roger Stott.
The 292-year-old Union of Scotland and England will not see its 300th anniversary, the SNP leader declared yesterday to his party conference in Inverness.