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UKIP's Mark Reckless says the Conservatives have been a "cosy cartel for too long" 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...... Mr. Reckless took 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.... In his acceptance speech 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."...... UKIP leader Nigel Farage denied the result...

Latest 04.21 Reckless won by 2,920 votes in the end - a lead of around 8 percentage points The breakdown of votes... Ukip 16,867 Con 13,947 Lab 6,713 Green 1,692 Lib Dem 349 And the breakdown by share of votes... Ukip 42.05 per cent Con 34.77 per cent Lab 16.74 per cent Lib Dem 0.85 per cent 04.20 MARK RECKLESS WINS ROCHESTER AND STROOD BY-ELECTION 04.00 Farage hints another Tory MP is ready to jump

On the eve of the Rochester by-election we take you through the Ukip policies and positions which have caught the imagination of voters. Deport migrants Mark Reckless, the Ukip candidate in the Rochester and Strood by-election, has raised the prospect of European migrants being forced to leave Britain if Ukip wins power. Mr Reckless said workers from the continent would only be allowed to stay in Britain for a fixed “transitional period” under Ukip plans to end unrestricted migration from the rest of Europe. He said the party would be willing to “look sympathetically” at people who have “integrated”. The...

Sir John Major has attacked the UK Independence party (Ukip) for spreading profoundly un-British politics of “negativity and sheer nastiness”, as he warned the UK would be a less relevant nation if it left the European Union.

UP to half a dozen Tory MPs are ­planning to defect to Ukip if their party loses Thursday’s by-election. Insiders claim Basildon and Billericay MP John Baron is the most likely to cross the floor. Five others could also make the switch in the coming weeks, according to sources. Last night Mr Baron refused to rule out joining Ukip and would refer only to earlier comments he made on BBC’s Newsnight last month. When he was asked on the programme whether he would defect, he replied: “You should never say never in politics.” However, he added: “My very strong preference...

Late last year, Senator Cory Bernardi published his first major work on political theory, illustrating his vision for a responsible, confident society and the governing principles that will be needed to foster it. The Conservative Revolution (Connor Court) was not intended to be a manifesto but has nevertheless been described as such since it was released for sale to the public. Perhaps the greatest interest to students of politics and to the media was less the content of the volume as the visceral neck-twitching reaction to its public release. There is something to be said for the confidence of Bernardi’s...

UKIP is on course to crush the Conservatives in the Rochester and Strood by-election, according to a new poll last night. The Survation poll for the Unite trade union gave Ukip candidate Mark Reckless a 15-point lead over his former party. The lead has widened by six points since an identical poll last month, and suggests that a huge Tory effort to hold the seat is failing to gain traction. The poll puts support for Ukip on 48 per cent, with the Conservatives on 33, Labour, who came second in 2010, on 16 per cent, the Greens on two percent...

UKIP is planning to fight for 100 seats at the next election, with a third of voters saying they are prepared to back Nigel Farage. Paul Sykes, the party’s biggest donor, revealed he is ready to write a check for £1.5 million to bankroll the ambitious push. As Tory divisions deepen over how to respond to the Euroskeptic threat, a new poll put UKIP on 18 percent, with one in three people willing to back the party if they thought they could win in their local area. […] Defense Secretary Michael Fallon today pleaded with even voters who want to...

Today Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP and co-president of the European of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group (EFDD) in the European Parliament, was back in his front row seat at the parliament after his eurosceptic EFDD group defeated attempts by the eurofanatic leadership of the parliament to disband them and take away their speaking rights. The victory of the group meant that the German Socialist President of the Parliament, Martin Schulz, who last week was accused by Nigel Farage of “manipulative backroom politics of the worst kind,” was forced to introduce “EFDD Mr Farage” to address the parliament. Farage rose...

Transcript: Mr Juncker, as you present this morning your new Commission, you tell us that they're all in the Last-Chance Saloon. Well, I'll tell you what, I'll come and see you there. But you're going to have to introduce me to them, because this is pretty much a bunch of non-entities, unknown. I spoke to MEPs this morning who will be voting later, and most of them couldn't even name half of them. And the one from Britian is so obscure, his name, Lord Hill should be Lord Who, because the British public couldn't pick the bloke out of a...

Britain is “lighting a fire under the European Union” by holding an in-out referendum on membership, Philip Hammond said today, as the Bill to give the public a vote cleared its first crucial hurdle in the House of Commons. The Foreign Secretary said setting in law a referendum on EU membership would force Brussels to grant Britain “meaty and substantial” reforms. The Private Members Bill, sponsored by Bob Neill, a former minister and vice-chairman of the Conservative Party, yesterday sailed through its second reading of the Commons by 293 to 0, and will now face further scrutiny. […] David Cameron...

A Euro-skeptic bloc within the European Parliament has collapsed. A Latvian member has pulled out of the group, breaching an EU rule that at least seven countries must be represented in a parliamentary faction. […] The exit also prompted European Parliament President Martin Schulz to postpone the assembly’s decision over this year’s Sacharov human rights prize until Tuesday next week. Nominees include Ukraine’s pro-EU Maidan protesters. […] There was a celebratory response from the main center-right European People’s Party (EPP) faction in the parliament, which alternates its sittings between Brussels and Strasbourg. “First defeat for euro-skeptics!” the EPP responded in...

Britain’s anti-EU UK Independence Party said on Sunday it would use its growing success to try to secure an early referendum on leaving the European Union, after its support hit a record high of 25 percent in an opinion poll. The poll, published days after UKIP won its first elected seat in Britain’s parliament at the expense of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party, suggested it could pick up more seats than previously thought in a national election in May. UKIP favors a British exit from the European Union, known as a “Brexit”, and tighter immigration controls. It has shaken...

UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has been invited to take part in a TV debate with David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg ahead of next year's general election. The BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel 4 have announced plans to hold three debates. One would involve a head-to-head debate between just the Conservative and Labour leaders, and another would include the Liberal Democrat leader. The other debate would involve all three leaders plus Mr Farage.

Migrants with HIV should be barred from entering Britain, Ukip leader Nigel Farage has said. Mr Farage said he wanted to control the ‘quality’ of immigration into Britain and said this should include the health of immigrants. Mr Farage told Newsweek Europe it was wrong that the ‘chances of admission’ of highly qualified engineers from India were limited. “Ukip want to control the quantity and quality of people who come,” Mr Farage said. He referred to the case of convicted killer Arnis Zalkalns, suspected of murdering schoolgirl Alice Gross. “It’s simple. That Latvian convicted murdered shouldn’t have been allowed here.”

Support for UKIP has surged to 25% in the polls and the party could win a remarkable 128 MPs in a general election, experts have claimed. A Survation poll for the Mail on Sunday found a repeat of the Clacton by-election result next May would see the Conservatives lose 100 seats and Ed Miliband at No 10. Labour and the Tories are both on 31% while the Liberal Democrats are on 8%, according to the research for the newspaper. Experts suggest that the ratings would give Labour 253 MPs, Conservatives 187, UKIP 128, Lib Dems 11, and other parties, such...

Just last year, Conservative Party grandee Kenneth Clarke described them as a "collection of clowns" – yet now they represent the greatest electoral challenge to the three main U.K. political parties for decades. The U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) - the closest the U.K. has to the U.S. tea party - has emerged from the fringes to the limelight, winning its first seat in the U.K. parliament in a by-election on Thursday. Referendum on EU membership UKIP member of European Parliament (MEP) Patrick O'Flynn wrote that if UKIP's candidate comes "a good second" in Heywood and Middleton, "my party will have...

.....11:55 Brian Stimpson, who has lived in Clacton since 1948 tells the BBC: "The result is fantastic. I was at the town hall last night till 4am. I was always a Tory voter but I'm not any more. This country needs a change. We are in a mess. We've got to get out of the EU. The future doesn't look too bright unless there is a dramatic change-and UKIP offers that."... 11:49 Mr. Straw acknowledges the last Labour government made a "mistake" when it failed in 2003 and 2004 to put in place transitional controls for immigrants from countries that...

CLACTON-UPON-SEA, United Kingdom -- The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) tonight took its first elected seat in the House of Commons following Douglas Carswell's stunning defection and by-election in the Essex seat of Clacton-Upon-Sea. Shortly after the Heywood and Middleton by election result - a vote hosted on the same day in the north of England - UKIP cruised to victory with a total of 60 percent against the Conservative Party's 25 percent. For Prime Minister David Cameron and his party the result is a hammer blow, though not an unexpected one. On today, the PM's birthday, the Tories got...

n his acceptance speech Mr Carswell, who gained 21,113 votes (59.75%) on a 44% swing from the Conservatives, said: "I resigned from parliament to face this election because I answer first, foremost and last to you. You are my boss. I will not let you down. "To my new party I offer these thoughts: humility when we win, modesty when we are proved right. If we speak with passion, let it always be tempered by compassion. "We must be a party for all Britain and all Britons: first and second generation as much as every other. Our strength must lie...