Labour and the Conservatives yesterday vied to associate themselves with Barack Obama's election as David Cameron argued it represented a triumph for the advocates of change, while Gordon Brown said it was an endorsement for progressive values.

Brown will travel to Washington next weekend for a meeting of world leaders convened by outgoing president George Bush, but Downing Street has downplayed the chances of a bilateral meeting with Obama.

Cameron claimed Obama's victory undermined Brown's central attack on him as Tory leader - that he is a novice lacking the experience to be prime minister.

In noisy exchanges in the Commons, Cameron welcomed the election of Obama as a historic moment - just four decades after the ending of segregation - showing that the US is a "beacon of hope, opportunity and change".

The Tory leader then turned to Brown's attack on him at the Labour conference, as he added: "I read this morning that the prime minister has sent a message to the president-elect. Presumably it wasn't 'this is no time for a novice'?"

Brown hit back: "What I said was that serious times needed serious people. Once again he's shown he's not serious."

As Labour MPs roared their approval Cameron looked over Brown's head and said to the government benches: "You have made your strategic choice. It's called more of the same and it's sitting in front of you. You killed change when you bottled that election and you buried change when you appointed Peter Mandelson."

The exchanges in the Commons showed how Obama's historic success will have a major impact on British politics.

Cameron, who has been privately excited by the prospect of an Obama victory, believes that it neutralises Brown's attack on him as a novice. Brown slapped down younger rivals, both inside and outside the Labour party, at his conference speech in Manchester in September when he said: "This is no time for a novice."

The Tory leader confronted Brown a week later, in his own conference speech, when he said it was judgment - not experience - that mattered in a leader. "We could not have written a more perfect script to illustrate that point after the election of a man who has only been in the US senate for four years," one Tory said.

Brown believes Obama's success will make it easier for progressive politicians to secure change. "Barack Obama is so obviously a really serious man who would never indulge in the sort of theatrics Cameron displays at prime minister's questions," one Labour figure said.

They also pointed out that the Conservatives had invited McCain to their party conference only two years ago.

Brown made it clear that he will use Obama's platform - to reverse the economic legacy of President Bush - when Cameron tried to exploit Obama's success to claim people want change in difficult economic times. Brown said: "The reason why the American people voted for change is that ... they want progressive policies."