UKIP’s Mark Reckless has won the Rochester and Strood by-election to become UKIP’s second Westminster member of parliament.
The former Tory MP took 16,867 votes, 2,920 more than his Conservative replacement Kelly Tolhurst, and 10,154 more than Labour’s Naushabah Khan.
The Liberal Democrats continued their recent run of very poor performance, with candidate Geoff Juby winning just 349 votes, which was less the one per cent of the total vote, and the party’s lowest total vote in a by-election.
Soon after his victory was announced, Reckless travelled to London to take be sworn in at the House of Commons to become UKIP’s second Westminster MP, following in the footsteps of Douglas Carswell, another former Tory defector who won a by-election last month
Rochester and Strood by-election results
Mark Reckless (UKIP): 16,867 votes (42.1%)
Kelly Tolhurst (Conservatives): 13,947 votes (34.8%)
Naushabah Khan (Labour): 6,713 votes (16.8%)
Clive Gregory (Greens): 1,692 votes (4.2%)
Geoff Juby (Liberal Democrats): 349 votes (0.9%)
1 Comment
Hi,
“Reckless wins Rochester by-election to become second UKIP MP”. It was amusing to watch Mr. Reckless on the opposition bench. The cat amongst the pigeons.