Labour saw off the SNP challenge in Glenrothes last night in a victory hailed as a turning point for Gordon Brown�s premiership.

Labour saw off the SNP challenge in Glenrothes last night in a victory hailed as a turning point for Gordon Brown's premiership.

The Brown bounce turned into a Salmond headache as the SNP's progress since July's victory in Glasgow East hit the buffers, emphatically ending the Scottish Government's honeymoon.

In a result that seemed to take even party insiders by surprise, their candidate Lindsay Roy coasted to victory with a majority of 6737, confounding many expectations of defeat for the party.

Labour, which had a majority of 10,664 in 2005, held the seat with 19,946 votes, its vote up 3% on the last election, while the SNP came second with 13,209 - its vote 13% up. The Tories came third with 1381. Voter turnout was 52%, compared with 56% in the 2005 General Election.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Roy praised Mr Brown, declaring: "I pledge my support to the leader of this country - someone who has worked very hard on behalf of all of us, not just in Fife, but in Scotland and the UK during these volatile economic times."

There was a seething resentment last night in SNP ranks about the nature of Labour's campaign. Peter Murrell, the SNP chief executive, said of Labour: "It was a completely negative onslaught from start to finish. We tried to keep our campaign positive and to focus on our achievements against a tirade from them which did not offer a single new policy idea from start to finish. What does that say? We did not want to get down in the dirt there with them."

But there is no doubt that the general recovery in the Prime Minister's fortunes over his handling of the international credit crisis played a major part in the victory.

Angus Robertson, SNP Westminster leader and key party strategist, said it was a disappointing night for the Nationalists but was keen to stress that the party's vote had gone up significantly: "It is disappointing but our activists worked very hard to get our vote out. But unfortunately the other side managed to get more people out and that explains the result."

Both parties had claimed during the campaign that the outcome was too close to call.

Labour felt it was closing the gap on 18 months ago when the SNP took the equivalent Holyrood constituency, while the Nationalists felt they were still on course for a historic victory in Mr Brown's back yard.

That sense of a close call and probable SNP victory remained right through the close of polling at 10pm yesterday, but as the count got under way at the Fife Institute the Conservative and Liberal Democrats began to predict a Labour victory.

Even then, both SNP and Labour sources insisted the result was too close to call, but then there was a sudden shift, as SNP confidence collapsed and it became clear that Labour realised they had pulled off a comfortable victory.

The Conservatives beat the Liberal Democrats into fourth place, but LibDem leader Tavish Scott said the real loser was Alex Salmond. "The First Minister made a great virtue of visiting Glenrothes regularly," he said. "Perhaps if he spent more time being First Minister rather than leader of the SNP there would have been a different result. Alex Salmond predicted the SNP would win on day one. He got it spectacularly wrong. Scottish politics has changed again. The honeymoon is over."

Labour held a majority of 10,664 at Glenrothes but the SNP overturned a majority of more than 13,000 to win Glasgow East earlier this summer and, crucially, 18 months ago the Nationalists also won the Holyrood seat of Central Fife, which comprised 80% of the Westminster seat.

Mr Brown twice visited Glenrothes, which borders his own Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath seat, and his wife Sarah made one full-scale media visit and a number of lower key events. Meanwhile, Mr Salmond and his deputy Nicola Sturgeon visited the constituency repeatedly, expressing confidence that the SNP would wreck all notions of a "Brown bounce".

But they reckoned without the impact of a relentless onslaught by Labour focusing on the policies of Fife Council, whose leader, Peter Grant, was the SNP candidate.

By the end of the protracted campaign, Labour had made the issue of increased charges for some disabled and elderly people into a virtual referendum. The SNP countered that charges had gone down for most of those involved, but the charge stuck.

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was on the campaign trail on Wednesday while Chancellor Alistair Darling also visited the constituency, as did Tory leader David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the LibDem chief.

Labour's Mr Roy is headteacher of Mr Brown's former school. LibDem candidate Harry Wills campaigned for a 2p cut in income tax to help families, while Tory Maurice Golden said a vote for him would send a "message of change" to Mr Brown.

The most recent parliamentary by-election in Fife saw the Liberal Democrats take Dunfermline and West Fife in 2006 - overturning a Labour majority of more than 11,000. The by-election followed the death of Labour MP John MacDougall.

Meanwhile, Labour held on to the ward of Baillieston on Glasgow City Council. Andy Muir was elected in yesterday's council by-election. He won 2027 votes, beating SNP candidate David Cassidy by 230 votes. Turnout at the Baillieston by-election was 21%.

Labour also won a council by-election in Edinburgh, with candidate Cammy Day taking the Forth seat with 2013 votes, ahead of George Gordon for the SNP who polled 1841. Iain McGill came third for the Tories on 1180.

Speaking on GMTV, Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy said the Prime Minister's handling of the global financial crisis had encouraged voters to support Labour again.

He said: "I am very happy this morning because the people of Fife have put their faith in Labour again. It was a dreadful result for the SNP and an embarrassment for the Conservatives.

"Everyone knows there is an economic storm sweeping the globe. The people yesterday put their faith in God and Brown. And it is a real personal tribute to the work that he has been doing.

Mr Murphy said the Glenrothes by-election was a major defeat for the SNP: "The fact is, it is a dreadful result for the SNP. They had predicted they would win. Their leader Alex Salmond visited the constituency 12 times.

"Labour had more votes in the election yesterday than in the General Election, which is a reflection of the affection that Gordon Brown is held in and a reflection of the appreciation of the work that he has been doing in the UK and across the world on the economic crisis."