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Ukip leader Nigel Farage (right) cheers as it is announced that his party's Mark Reckless had won the by-election. Photo: AFP

Anti-Europe party Ukip wins its second seat in British parliament at Rochester and Strood

By-election victory by Conservative defector to Ukip a major blow to Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of national vote in six months

AFP

Britain's anti-European Union UK Independence Party (Ukip) has won its second seat in Parliament in a by-election that could signal upheaval at the general election in six months' time.

Mark Reckless was re-elected to Parliament with 42 per cent of the vote, after defecting in September from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party to Ukip, which wants strict quotas on immigration.

Furious campaigning by the Conservatives to hold on to Rochester and Strood failed to beat back the Ukip advance and their candidate lagged behind on 35 per cent, a blow to Cameron, who had vowed to "throw everything" at Thursday's by-election battle and visited the constituency five times to campaign.

Reacting to the defeat, Cameron said he was "absolutely determined to win" the seat back in next year's national vote, but Ukip leader Nigel Farage insisted he was "absolutely confident" the seat would remain within his camp.

Farage hailed the "huge, huge victory".

"They [the Conservatives] threw the kitchen sink at it, but despite their boasts, we have beaten the ruling party of the day in this life and death struggle," he told Sky News.

"Whatever constituency you live in, whatever your former party allegiance, think about what it would mean to have a bloc of Ukip MPs at Westminster large enough to hold the balance of power," Reckless said.

"If you believe that the world is bigger than Europe, if you believe in an independent Britain, then come with us and we will give you back your country."

It is the second seat snatched by Ukip after another Conservative defector, Douglas Carswell, won Ukip its first elected seat in the national parliament in a September by-election in Clacton.

Speculation over further Ukip defections swirled after Reckless suggested two more Conservative lawmakers could switch - an idea quickly dismissed by senior Conservatives.

Cameron 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 towards Ukip.

Experts said the latest vote result could prove a key moment in the history of British politics.

"Ukip was not supposed to win this by-election," explained Matthew Goodwin, politics professor at Nottingham University.

Ukip's growing support is likely to make it harder for either the centre-right Conservative party or the centre-left Labour party to win an outright majority in May. "All bets are off for the general election next year; literally anything could happen," said Ukip leader Farage.

But some commentators questioned whether Thursday's by-election might be a protest vote that could wane as the general election approaches.

"I think what you're broadly seeing is the voters using by-elections as a means of expressing their discontent at all the mainstream parties," said political commentator and columnist for the Dan Hodges.

The Conservative candidate for Rochester and Strood, Kelly Tolhurst, vowed to "fight every day until the 2015 election to return a Conservative to this constituency".

National opinion polls show the Labour party slightly ahead of the Conservatives, each with roughly a third of the vote, and Ukip's support steadily rising to about 16 per cent. The by-election results showed both the Liberal Democrats and the Labour party losing large chunks of support compared to the previous vote in 2010.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Anti-Europe party wins second U.K. seat
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