Reckless on 9% lead in Rochester & Strood

The Nasty Party's attacks on Mark Reckless that have forced him to move his family out of Rochester and on UKIP members in general look to have backfired on them.

A Survation poll for the Mail of Sunday puts UKIP on 40% in the Rochester & Strood constituency with the Tories 9 points behind on 31%. Labour are third on 25% and the Lib Dems set to lose their deposit with just 2% of the vote.

There are some interesting statistics in the polling that should worry both Labour and the Tories. Only 12% said they would be voting for Reckless because they like him, 70% said they were voting UKIP because they support UKIP's policies and 88% of those who are voting for UKIP said they will vote for UKIP in the general election next year.

Survation has been consistently close to the mark when predicting UKIP success so there will no doubt be a tentative sigh of relief in the Reckless household.