Sitting Labour MP Rosie Cooper comfortably retained her West Lancashire seat after a hotly-contested battle with the Conservatives.
With an increased turn-out the Tory challenger managed to increase his share of the vote, but "Battling Rosie" won with a comfortable majority of 4,343 - down from her 6,084 margin in 2005.
After a sometimes nail-biting eight-and-a-half hour count at Ormskirk Civic Hall, Rosie praised her hard-working army of supporters, led by campaign manager Chris Mawdsley.
But in her 6.30am acceptance speech Rosie handed much of the credit for her win to the boost given to her campaign by the impact of a flying visit by Gordon Brown made to Skelmersdale on the final day of canvassing on Wednesday.
Mr Brown was given a rousing welcome when he toured the town's Concourse Shopping Centre, shaking hands with voters, posing for pictures and signing autographs.
After acknowledging the work of the Returning Officer, his officials, counting staff and police, Rosie said: "I would like to thank our party leader Gordon Brown. I want to thank him for taking the trouble to come to the constituency twice during the campaign to show his support- first to Augton and then Skelmersdale."
Speaking later Rosie added: "I think Gordon's visit had a very direct and significant impact on the result. The turn-out in Skelmersdale was much higher in this election than in 2005. We did a lot of hard work canvassing in Skelmersdale, and elsewhere and the fine weather helped.
"But I am convinced that the key factor that helped us to press-home our advantage was the visit by Gordon Brown on Wednesday. He was mobbed and it showed the people of Skelmersdale valued the fact that their voice was being heard and that was a potent factor in getting people to make their vote count.
"Skelmersdale people were delighted and a little flattered to see the Prime Minister taking the time to come and see them".
But Rosie also insisted that a campaign, fought equally on local as well as national issues, was a vital element in her win.
She added: "We fought really hard to highlight important local issues, like the fact that pensioners in West Lancashire are denied free travel on public transport while their counterparts in Merseyside and Greater Manchester get free bus passes. This happens despite the Conservative-ruled local council carrying a surplus of £23m and local issues like this things that local people connect with."
The Tories had considered West Lancashire winnable, since it was ranked at 134 on their list of target seats.
Defeated Conservative candidate Adrian Owens acknowledged that a high turn-out in the solid Labour area of Skelmersdale played a big part in the Labour win.
Businessman Adrian said: "The turn-out in Skelmersdale was much higher than last time. But I think that Labour fought a very negative campaign that was falsely based on a fear factor - they went out of their way to try to frighten people, to frighten them with unfounded fears about voting-in a Conservative government would mean.
"It was a hard-fought campaign on all sides and I am pleased that I managed to increase our share of the vote. That bodes well for the future."
WEST LANCASHIRE CONSTITUENCY RESULT 2010 (The seat is sometimes listed as "Lancashire West")
LABOUR HOLD
Adrian Owens (Conservative) 17,540
Rosie Cooper (Labour) 21,883
John Gibson (Lib Dem) 6,573
Damon Noone (UKIP) 1,775
Peter Cranie (Green) 485
David Braid (Christian for Clause 28) 217
Turn-out 65.82% (up 8.11 on 2005)
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