UK anti-EU party wins second parliament seat
Victory for UKIP is blow to ruling Conservative party which will be seeking re-election in May 2015 polls.
The anti-European Union UK Independence Party has won its second seat in parliament in a blow to the ruling Conservative party that could indicate upheaval in May’s general election.
Mark Reckless, who defected to the anti-immigration UKIP from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party in September, beat the Conservative candidate on Friday on a margin of just under 3,000 votes in Thursday’s by-election in the town of Rochester.
UKIP’s Mark Reckless delivers a speech after winning Thursday’s by-election in the town of Rochester [AFP] |
Speculation over further defections to UKIP swirled after Reckless suggested two more Conservative lawmakers could switch, piling pressure on Cameron six months from the May general election.
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Furious campaigning by the Conservatives to keep the once-safe Rochester and Strood seat failed to steal back momentum, and experts portrayed the election as a historic moment in British politics.
The by-election came a month after the Conservatives lost a previously safe seat of Clacton to another defector, Douglas Carswell, handing UKIP its first ever seat in the national parliament.
The prime minister has already promised a referendum on Britain’s EU membership if his party wins next year’s general election and has taken a harder stance on immigration in a bid to stem the flow.