New Falkirk MP takes his seat

Labour chief whip Ann Taylor welcomes Mr Joyce

The new Labour MP for Falkirk West has taken his seat in the House of Commons for the first time.

Eric Joyce, a former army major, swore his oath of allegiance to the Queen before taking his seat on Tuesday afternoon.

He had earlier been welcomed to Westminster by Labour's chief whip, Ann Taylor MP.

Mr Joyce won the seat in December with a majority of just 705 votes over the Scottish National Party.

The contest was caused by the resignation of maverick left-winger Dennis Canavan.

'Nationalists irrelevant'

Mr Canavan won the seat for Labour with a majority of 13,783 at the 1997 general election.

Mr Joyce said the result had proved those who believed Labour would be beaten were wrong.

He said: "We have disappointed them - those pundits and pollsters who thought that this would be a disastrous by-election.

"The nationalists have been judged irrelevant in Falkirk West.

"They have been cast aside by the people of Falkirk in favour of making this country better."