By Lewis Bazley.

Mercury prize winner Speech DeBelle is aiming for the top after beating the favourites to the highest annual accolade in British music.

The south London rapper beat the likes of Florence and the Machine, Glasvegas and La Roux to the award on Tuesday night but seemed undaunted by her surprise win at the Barclaycard Mercury ceremony.

Asked if she hoped to replicate the post-Mercury success of last year’s winners Elbow, Speech DeBelle made it clear the award is just the start of her career.

"Onwards and upwards – by this time next year I want to have hopefully started my record label, there’s so much work to be done and this has given me the boost that I need," she said in a post-awards press conference.

"I hope so many more people get to hear the album and get from it what I got from making the album."

Speech DeBelle earmarked London trio the Invisible as the most worthy of her competition among her fellow nominees and when asked if she’d expected to win, instantly replied: "Yeah."

"I think it’s one of the best albums released this year," she added.

The 26-year-old said she was keen to work with chart-topping US band Kings of Leon as well as British songwriter and producer Eg White, the co-writer of Grammy winner Adele’s Chasing Pavements and Warwick Avenue.

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