Waverley Councillor defects to UKIP

Waverley borough councillor, Elliot Nichols, has defected from the Tories to UKIP.

Cllr Nichols said that while he is eurosceptic, that isn't the reason he joined UKIP - he has joined UKIP because "it is the only party that takes aspiration seriously" and because the Tories no longer reflects the concerns of its grass roots members.

UKIP's candidate in the Eastleigh by-election, Cllr Diane James, also sits on Waverley Borough Council changing the balance of the council to 53 Conservative, 2 UKIP and 1 Independent.  Once again UKIP is the real opposition.

Amazing UKIP result in Eastleigh

Some technology issues have prevented us commenting on the Eastleigh by-election until now but the excitement still hasn't worn off.

Diane James achieved a massive result in Eastleigh, securing UKIP's best ever by-election result and pushing the Tories into third place.

Candidate	Party	Vote	%	Change
Mike Thornton	Liberal Democrat	13,342	32.06%	-14.48%
Diane James	UKIP	11,571	27.80%	+24.20%
Maria Hutchings	Conservative	10,559	25.37%	-13.96%
John O'Farrell	Labour	4,088	9.82%	+0.22%
Danny Stupple	Independent	768	1.85%	+1.56%
Dr Iain Maclennan	National Health Action Party	392	0.94%	-
Ray Hall	Beer, Baccy and Crumpet Party	235	0.56%	-
Kevin Milburn	Christian Party	163	0.39%	-
Howling Laud Hope	Monster Raving Loony Party	136	0.33%	-
Jim Duggan	Peace Party	128	0.31%	-
David Bishop	Elvis Loves Pets	72	0.17%	-
Michael Walters	English Democrats	70	0.17%	-0.30%
Daz Procter	Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts	62	0.15%	-
Colin Bex	Wessex Regionalist	30	0.07%	-
Turnout: 52.7%

The UKIP vote in Eastleigh came from all sides with polling from former Tory donor, Lord Ashcroft, showing that 22% of Tory voters at the 2010 election voted UKIP, 19% of Lib Dem voters and 17% of Labour voters.  UKIP isn't the Tory protest party that the media and the left like to claim it is - we are the party of the left, the party of the right and the party of the centre.

It was great to hear Nigel Farage pointing out that it was vote splitting Tories that let the Lib Dems win.  We've been pointing out that Tories splitting the UKIP vote is letting Labour and the Lib Dems win elections and been ridiculed by Conservative Party activists who think that every vote for UKIP is a vote stolen from them.  The result in Eastleigh shows that a vote for the Tories is a vote for the Lib Dems or Labour.

Many, many congratulations to Diane James, to the Eastleigh branch and to all the volunteers who walked the streets of Eastleigh spreading our positive message that a vote for UKIP is a vote for change.  UKIP is going from strength to strength and a breakthrough at Westminster is surely inevitable very soon.

UKIP odds shorten in Eastleigh, Lib Dems defecting

Things are looking positive for UKIP in Eastleigh.  The opinion polls are generally swinging between a Lib Dem hold and a Tory gain but UKIP's support is steadily increasing.

According to Ladbrokes in Eastleigh, bets on a Tory win have dropped right off and only one person bet on a Tory win last week.  In the meantime, they say, bets on a UKIP win have increased by 300%.  UKIP is now at 16/1 to win and have overtaken Labour as far as the bookies are concerned.

A poll of Winchester students is less positive and even less commonsensical. The students of Winchester University put Labour a fair way in front, followed by the Tories and then the Lib Dems. They must have short memories because it was Labour who introduced the racist tuition fees regime that only targets English students in the first place, the Tories who increased them from £3k to £9k a year and the Lib Dems who promised to abolish them and then supported the Tory increase. The LibLabCon parties are responsible for landing English students with tens of thousands of pounds of debt but they still vote for them like a woman going back to an abusive partner time and time again because he promises he'll change.  It worries me to think that such irrational thinkers are the leaders of tomorrow.

The Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems are running a negative campaign trying to make their candidate out to be the least hypocritical of the three rather than tell voters what it is they intend to do for them.  Here is UKIP candidate, Diane James, on some key issues:

• Diane James on Healthcare
• Diane James on Housing
• Diane James on Immigration
• Diane James on the closure of Eastleigh's Ford factory

UKIP's positive message for Eastleigh was enough to convince former Lib Dem mayor, Glynn Davies-Dear, to defect to defect to UKIP.  After years of campaigning for the Lib Dems and serving as a Lib Dem borough and county councillor for 20 years he has finally had enough of Lib Dems dishonesty, describing Chris Huhne as an "inveterate liar".  Another former Lib Dem councillor, Andy Moore, joined Mr Davies-Dear in switching to UKIP at the same time.  Mr Moore said that he couldn't support the Lib Dem candidate who has both promised to protect green spaces in Eastleigh and to build on them at the same time.

Cllr Diane James chosen as UKIP candidate for Eastleigh

Waverley Borough Councillor, Diane James, has been selected as the UKIP candidate for the Eastleigh by-election.

The by-election has been triggered by the "resignation" of the Lib Dem MP and convicted criminal, Chris Huhne.  UKIP is predicted to come third in most opinion polls apart from an MSN News poll which puts the party in first place but that's a national poll, not Eastleigh-only.

Cllr Jones is an expert in healthcare, a member of the local plans board, campaigns for the introduction of high speed internet in her local community and is a member of Waverley Cycle Forum.  She was elected to Waverley Borough Council as an independent before joining UKIP but continues to sit with the Waverley Independent Network group on the borough councillor.