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.

Candidate	Party	Votes
Emma Lewell-Buck	Labour	12,493
Richard Elvin	UK Independence Party	5,988
Karen Allen	Conservatives	2,857
Ahmed Khan	Independent	1,331
Phil Brown	Independent Socialist Party	750
Lady Dorothy Macbeth Brookes	BNP	711
Hugh Annand	Liberal Democrats	352
Howling Laud Hope	The Official Monster Raving Loony Party	197
Thomas Faithful Darwood	Independent	57