UK far-right party scores second major win in Parliament

The march of the anti-European Union movement in Britain gathered further momentum today after the far-right UK Independence Party (UKIP) won its second seat in the Parliament ahead of the general elections next year.
Mark Reckless, who had recently defected from the ruling Conservative Party in September triggering a by-election, was re-elected with 42 per cent of the vote today.
Reckless won Rochester and Strood in Kent county of England with 16,867 votes, a majority of 2,920 over his former Tory party challenger, in a campaign dominated by the issue of immigration.
Reckless was heckled by some Labour MPs as he was sworn in at the House of Commons just five hours after his victory was confirmed.

He was joined in the Commons by UKIP's other MP Douglas Carswell, another former Conservative who won a by-election in September.
In his acceptance speech, he said Rochester and Strood had been UKIP's 271st most winnable seat and "if UKIP can win here, we can win across the country".

While UKIP leader Nigel Farage hailed the win as a trigger for more defections from the Tory party, Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to win back Rochester and Strood for the Conservatives in the General Election in May 2015.
"I am absolutely determined to win this seat back at the General Election because anything other than a Conservative government would put our recovery at risk and mean [Opposition Leader] Ed Miliband in Downing Street," he said.

The result is seen as a serious blow to Cameron, who personally spearheaded the Conservative campaign just months before a General Election and himself visited the constituency as many as five times.
It is being perceived as a protest vote by the electorate, expressing their displeasure at the three main parties - Conservative, Liberal Democrats and Labour.
However, Farage dismissed suggestions that the result was merely a protest vote.
"Despite their boasts and despite their belief that they would win Rochester, we have beaten the governing party of the day in this sort of life-death struggle. What it really does, is to make any prediction for the General Election frankly irrelevant. I think the whole thing now is up in the air," said Farage, who has been spearheading a strong anti-EU and anti-immigration campaign.