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Post by Admin on Aug 27, 2014 21:33:28 GMT
Nigel Farage has been chosen by UKIP members to fight the South Thanet seat in Kent at the 2015 general election. Speaking before the hustings where he was selected, the party leader also suggested he would stand down if UKIP failed to win any seats in Westminster. Mr Farage beat three other candidates in the hustings vote held in Ramsgate. Mr Farage contested Thanet South, as the seat was then known, at the 2005 general election but came fourth with just 5% of the vote. After being selected this time, he told the BBC he was pleased he "managed to scrape through", adding that addressing fellow UKIP members made him "nervous" as they are a "bloody-minded lot". He said: "I'm going to have to fight very, very hard and build up a big voluntary team to make this work, but I believe I can do it." Prior to the hustings, Mr Farage had insisted he was the man to campaign for the South Thanet seat, given he has served as an MEP for the area and has "good personal relationships" with its county councillors. The seat is currently held by Conservative Laura Sandys, who is standing down at the next election. She had a majority of 7,617 in 2010. Mr Farage beat family lawyer Elizabeth Jones, barrister Piers Wauchope and Peter Bucklitsch, a fellow of the Institute of Financial Accountants. Many had viewed Mr Farage's selection as a formality, but ahead of hustings he insisted he was 'no shoo-in' and said that 'rank means nothing' in UKIP. UKIP strategists believe they can win up to five seats in the general election next year, it was reported by the Telegraph today. The seats UKIP are allegedly targeting are: South Thanet, Boston and Skegness, North Thanet, Sittingborne and Sheppey, Forest of Dean, Aylebury, Great Yarmouth, East Worthing, Thurrock, Grimsby, Eastleigh and Portsmouth. Three of the seats are held by Tory ministers. Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, is Mark Harper, the welfare minister's seat, while Great Yarmouth is held by Brandon Lewis, the planning minister.
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Post by Admin on Sept 1, 2014 23:23:36 GMT
David Cameron faces his biggest by-election defeat yet at the hands of Ukip defector Douglas Carswell in Clacton. The first poll of the constituency, which handed ex-Tory MP Carswell 53% of the vote in 2010, predicted he would be returned as Ukip's first elected candidate in Westminster with eye-watering support of 64%. The Conservatives are trailing an enormous 44% behind on 20%, with Labour on 13%. Survation's poll for the Mail on Sunday newspaper is a disaster for the Tories, who had made clear they planned to fight the seat vigorously following Carswell's shock defection on Thursday. But Clacton had been viewed as a strong target for Ukip in 2015. Carswell himself had admitted to Politics.co.uk in 2013 he felt the seat only contained around one-third support for the Conservatives. Now the Survation poll suggests a clear majority of 57% of Ukip supporters will back Carswell because they prefer his new party. One-third said they were prepared to support Ukip because of the candidate. Carswell's decision to abandon the Conservatives does not seem to have hurt his reputation, with 49% labelling him a 'hero' and only 17% declaring him a 'traitor'. Tory MPs have been quick to criticise their former colleague, suggesting his move is "counter-productive" because a Ukip vote increases the chances of Ed Miliband becoming prime minister. The 48 point Ukip swing in Clacton is partly the result of the party not having stood in the 2010 Election, so their support has gone from nought to 64 per cent in one leap. The poll blow came as senior Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames fiercely criticised Mr Carswell. Former Defence Minister Sir Nicholas told The Mail on Sunday: ‘What Douglas Carswell has done is sheer madness. Mr Carswell’s astonishing 64 per cent appears to be a reflection of a combination of enormous local personal support for him – and for Ukip. Of those who intend to vote Ukip, two-thirds said that they would do so because they liked the party, and one in three because they like Mr Carswell. Fewer than one in ten said it was to protest against the Government. Fewer than one in five Tory supporters in Clacton believe he has ‘betrayed’ the party – half hail him as a hero. Mr Farage is close to being the most popular party leader in Clacton, polling 25 from all voters, one point behind Mr Cameron on 26.
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Post by Admin on Sept 29, 2014 23:02:01 GMT
Boris Johnson has urged the "great Conservative family" to unite to defeat Labour at the next general election and to guarantee a referendum on Europe. Speaking in the wake of a second Tory defection to UKIP, the mayor of London said only the Conservatives could "sort out" the UK's relationship with the EU. He told a Conservative conference rally that the "ideal solution" would be for the UK to stay in a reformed EU. But he suggested the UK would also prosper in a "trade zone" outside it. Former Tory MP Mark Reckless' defection to UKIP on the eve of the Tory conference has increased pressure on David Cameron. The move, which came less than a month after Douglas Carswell's departure to UKIP, has caused "unconstrained fury" in the Tory leadership, BBC political editor Nick Robinson said. Douglas Carswell (left) stood down as MP for Clacton to stand in the resulting by-election for UKIP Speaking at a fringe meeting at the Conservative conference in Birmingham, Mr Johnson said he had never been approached about defecting to another party although he joked that "he had once met Nigel Farage in a pub about 20 years ago". And he sought to rally support behind David Cameron and his pledge of a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU in 2017 if the Tories win the next election. "It is only if the great conservative family unites and we stop Ed Miliband seizing back control of this country that we will be able to deliver the referendum that this country wants and deserves," Johnson told activists. Mark Reckless made the same move on Saturday, to the delight of UKIP and its leader Nigel Farage (right)
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Post by Admin on Nov 21, 2014 22:42:40 GMT
Nigel Farage has said UKIP can become a major force in Parliament at next year's election after its victory in the Rochester and Strood by-election. UKIP's leader said Mark Reckless's win made him think the party could take twice as many seats as it had thought. Mr Reckless gained 16,867 votes, 2,920 more than Conservative Kelly Tolhurst's 13,947, with Labour's Naushabah Khan on 6,713 - ahead of the Green Party. The Lib Dems came fifth with their lowest vote in a by-election. Mr Reckless, whose defection from the Tories to UKIP triggered the contest in Kent, travelled to London soon after his election to take his seat in Parliament, saying his constituents expected him "to get back to work". As he was sworn in at the House of Commons, he was accompanied by UKIP's other MP Douglas Carswell, another former Conservative who won a by-election last month. In his acceptance speech early on Friday morning, Mr Reckless said Rochester and Strood had been UKIP's 271st most winnable seat and "if UKIP can win here, we can win across the country". Speaking to the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson, Mr Reckless urged other Conservative MPs to join UKIP but said it was difficult to predict how many, if any, would do so because it was a "very individual decision".
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Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2014 22:42:54 GMT
Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives lost a second parliamentary seat to the anti-EU UKIP party on Friday, an embarrassing defeat heralding a possible fragmentation of Britain's two-party system in next year's national election. With distrust of mainstream parties and anxiety about immigration rising, UKIP, the UK Independence Party, overturned a majority of almost 10,000 to beat Cameron's party in a special election in the southeast English constituency of Rochester and Strood six months before an unusually close-run national vote. Nigel Farage, UKIP's leader, said the vote showed it would be much more difficult to forecast who would govern the world's sixth largest economy in future. "It is now unpredictable beyond comprehension," he told BBC radio after celebrating with a pint of beer, a drink he has used to portray himself as being in touch with ordinary voters. Cameron's right-leaning Conservatives and the opposition left-wing Labour Party have taken turns to rule Britain since 1945, with a much smaller party, the Liberal Democrats, playing a supporting role in government since 2010. Reckless was a Conservative lawmaker until he became the party's second member of the lower house of parliament to defect to UKIP, triggering Thursday's vote. His new party hopes his electoral success will spur other defections. He won 16,867 votes or just over 42 percent of the vote, giving him a majority of 2,920. That was less than polls of voter intentions had suggested but a comfortable win. Cameron's Conservatives, who won the seat in 2010 with a majority of almost 10,000, came second with 13,947 votes even though they had initially been very bullish about victory. Labour came third with 6,713 votes. It had hoped the result would focus media attention on Cameron's woes. But instead it found itself on the spot after Emily Thornberry, the party's top legal expert, tweeted a photograph of a voter's home draped in England's national flags with a white van parked outside. The electoral loss is a bitter blow to Cameron's personal authority after he ordered his party to "throw the kitchen sink" at the contest to try to hold Rochester. He said he was determined to win the seat back at the national election, arguing only a Conservative government could safeguard the country's economic recovery. Labour is talking up the possibility of a leadership challenge against Cameron from within his own party. There is, however, no evidence that such a challenge is imminent. If it did occur analysts believe Cameron would survive but be damaged. Labour have their own problems, with polls showing they may be wiped out next year in Scotland, a stronghold for generations, where the separatist Scottish National Party has surged despite losing a pro-independence referendum in September.
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