party's resources. The Alliance Party attempted to withdraw their candidate Kelly Buchanan, after the announcement of candidacy by Matt McCarten, an ex-party leader and founding president. They were unsuccessful and announced instead that electors should not vote for Ms Buchanan and instead vote for McCarten. Results Reaction This by-election was considered a good result by the National Party as Labour's majority had been cut down to 1080 from just over 6,000 at the last election. Kris Faafoi was "happy with the result; we won ... at the beginning we always said it was going to be a tough race." John Key said "I never thought coming second in politics would feel so good....Sometimes losing is winning and this is one of them where we have had a tremendous result here. In all probability, the swing should have gone against National because that's what happens when you are the Government campaigning in a very safe Labour seat and he has been thrashed. When this campaign began, Phil Goff said this by-election would be referendum on the Government's policies. Well he was right!" Phil Goff said that the result reflects well on Faafoi's hard work and is "one step on the way to getting back to a Labour government". Many other Labour MPs did not think that they had lost the by election. William Sio said that "The truth is that it is always difficult for most low income families to get involved in a by-election like this and to think about improving the future when they are more concerned about the everyday reality of with putting food on the table and worrying about their kids doing well at school." Audrey Young, a New Zealand Herald writer, criticised what she called Labour's "spin tactics" "Some in Labour who should know better are creatively suggesting that Labour actually did better in the by-election than the last general election, despite having its majority slashed from 6155 to 1080. From three senior figures has come the suggestions that Kris Faafoi winning 47 per cent of the candidate vote on Saturday was a better result than the 43.9 per cent party vote that the party got in 2008, when Winnie Laban stood. That is like comparing raisins and sheep droppings." However, Grant Robertson, a Labour MP, praised Parata by saying "I also think Hekia deserves some credit. She is an articulate person who campaigned hard. Most