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TONY Blair raised the stakes in Uxbridge yesterday when he became the first Prime Minister in more than 30 years to campaign in a by-election.

The Prime Minister dismissed the surprise defection of Michael Shrimpton, a former Labour parliamentary candidate, to the Conservatives yesterday as "odd".

Clearly enjoying being back on the campaign trail just 12 weeks after the Labour victory, he said the convention that Prime Ministers stay away from by-elections was "daft".

Mr Blair's presence in Uxbridge one week before the poll was designed to encourage voters to concentrate on the Government's record and deflect attention from the row about Labour's candidate, Andrew Slaughter, not being local.

The risks are great because if Labour fails to gain the Tory seat, which was held by Sir Michael Shersby by 724 votes in May, it could be interpreted as a personal blow to Mr Blair.

The Labour campaign has been dogged by criticism that Mr Slaughter was put into Uxbridge by the leadership after David Williams, the "old" Labour candidate, who fought the seat at the general election, was dumped.

A long-standing Labour member of Hillingdon council resigned in protest and up to 30 Labour activists loyal to Mr Williams are said be refusing to campaign for Mr Slaughter.

But Mr Blair received a rapturous reception from hundreds of people in Uxbridge town centre and the less affluent area of Yiewsley. He worked his way along the main shopping street to spontaneous outbursts of applause and shouts of: "We love you Tony." "He looks like a pop star in real life. I touched him," said one swooning woman.

The Tories attempted to upstage Mr Blair's visit by revealing that Mr Shrimpton, who stood for Labour at Horsham in the 1987 general election and as the European Parliamentary Candidate in West Sussex in 1989, was defecting because Labour was too "centralised".

Mr Shrimpton, who also attempted to secure the nomination for the Uxbridge seat, said he was appalled at the way the new Government had behaved.

"I know there is deep concern within the Labour Party at the way the Government is behaving and the way the party machine is becoming centralised and overriding the wishes of local constituency activists," he said.

Lord Parkinson, the Tory Party chairman, accused Labour of "riding roughshod" over the people of Uxbridge. But Labour dismissed Mr Shrimpton's defection as "sour grapes" and it was claimed last night that he had previously been a member of the Tory Party, the SDP and the Socialist Workers' Party.

Bill Rammell, the Labour MP for Harlow, a contemporary of Mr Shrimpton's at University College, Cardiff, who succeeded him as President of the Union, said: "I remember how he was elected President of the Union as a Conservative in 1981. Then he defected to the SDP, boasting he was the first Conservative President to do so.

"He then switched to Labour within months, moving finally to the Socialist Workers' Party when I got the official Labour nomination for President in 1982".

Mr Blair insisted that Mr Slaughter was an excellent candidate. He said: "What matters is that we have somebody who is thoroughly new Labour and is a supporter of mine and can make his mark. You have to be able to cut some ice in there [the Commons] and make an impact, rather than someone that is going to disappear into the unknown."

Mr Blair's first encounter in Uxbridge was with a five-year-old boy with an arm in plaster who told the Prime Minister he was called Kenneth Clark. "I don't believe it," laughed Mr Blair.

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