Friday 3 May 2013

UKIP deprives Labour of half its majority in South Shields

Labour have won the South Shields by-election but with a massive swing to UKIP.

UKIP has never stood in South Shields before and there wasn't even a branch there when the by-election was called yet despite having to start from scratch we have finished a very strong second, once again the only party capable of giving the incumbent LibLabCon parties a run for their money.

Labour's majority has been squeezed by almost half whilst UKIP's share of the vote has gone from nothing to 24%.  The Tories crashed, taking less than 5% and losing their deposit whilst the dead duck Lib Dems came a lowly 7th place behind an independent, the Independent Socialist Party and the BNP.  Just 155 votes separated the Lib Dems and the Monster Raving Loony Party.

This is a fantastic result and UKIP's candidate, Richard Elvin and the team that supported him should be immensely proud of another amazing performance with the odds stacked massively against them.

CandidatePartyVotes
Emma Lewell-BuckLabour12,493
Richard ElvinUK Independence Party5,988
Karen AllenConservatives2,857
Ahmed KhanIndependent1,331
Phil BrownIndependent Socialist Party750
Lady Dorothy Macbeth BrookesBNP711
Hugh AnnandLiberal Democrats352
Howling Laud HopeThe Official Monster Raving Loony Party197
Thomas Faithful DarwoodIndependent57