21 November 2014 - UKIP victory in Kent byelection
UKIP's Reckless wins Rochester and Strood seat
Staff (BBC News)
UKIP has its second elected MP at Westminster after Mark Reckless won the Rochester and Strood by-election.
Mr Reckless received 16,867 votes, 2,920 more than Conservative candidate Kelly Tolhurst's 13,947, with Labour's Naushabah Khan third on 6,713.
The Green Party came fourth, while the Lib Dems got their lowest total ever.
Mr Reckless, whose defection from the Tories to UKIP triggered the contest in Kent, said: "If UKIP can win here, we can win across the country."
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Pressure
Rowena Mason (The Guardian)
In his victory speech, Reckless told Britons that Ukip would “give you back your country”.
He said his win proved Ukip could win nationwide and called for voters to give the party the balance of power in parliament.
“Whichever constituency, whatever your former party allegiance, think of what it would mean to have a bloc of Ukip MPs at Westminster large enough to hold the balance of power,” he 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.”
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Nationalism
Matt Chorley (The Daily Mail)
Tory defector Mark Reckless today became Ukip's second elected MP in a devastating blow to the Conservatives.
He won the Rochester and Strood by-election by a majority of 2,920 votes, six weeks after David Cameron vowed to kick his 'fat a***' out of the Commons.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage will declare his 'People's Army' is now on course to make a major breakthrough in next year's general election.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Reckless said: 'If we can win here, we can win across the country. If you vote Ukip, you get Ukip. He told voters: 'You remain my boss, don't let me forget it.'
Mr Farage told reporters: '(David Cameron) put his own personal reputation on the line to fight this by-election and lost, so there you go,' before the pair reportedly headed to a nearby pub.
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Details
Staff (The Irish Times)
The victory suggests that Ukip has the staying power to damage mainstream parties in the general election scheduled for next May. The byelection result could also encourage more defections from the Conservatives, potentially undermining Mr Cameron. On Wednesday, Reckless claimed that he had held talks with two other Conservatives who were considering switching to Ukip.
Matthew Goodwin, professor of politics at the University of Nottingham, described the Ukip triumph as “very significant because it is six months out from a general election and in a pretty middle-of-the-road constituency.
“Twelve months ago, the consensus was that they couldn’t win a seat at Westminster. Now they have two. People have not understood the strength of the forces driving this insurgency, built up over decades among certain groups of voters who feel they have been cut adrift,” he said.
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21 November 2014 - UKIP victory in Kent byelection, La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), novembre 2014. Consulté le 08/11/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/key-story/archives-revue-de-presse-2014/21-november-2014-ukip-victory-in-kent-byelection