Regional lists announced for Welsh Assembly elections

The results of the internal party ballot to decide the regional list for the Welsh Assembly elections have been announced.

Former MPs Neil Hamilton and Mark Reckless have both topped regional lists, as has the leader of UKIP Wales, Nathan Gill. The regional lists are elected by proportional representation and with UKIP polling 18% across Wales, could return UKIP's first Welsh Assembly members.

Mid & West Wales
Place	Candidate
1	Neil Hamilton
2	Gethin James
3	Des Parkinson
4	Howard Lillyman

North Wales
Place	Candidate
1	Nathan Gill
2	Michelle Brown
3	Mandy Jones
4	David Edwards

South Wales Central
Place	Candidate
1	Gareth Bennett
2	Alex Phillips
3	Mohammed Islam
4	Liz Wilks

South Wales East
Place	Candidate
1	Mark Reckless
2	David Rowlands
3	Susan Boucher
4	Julie Price

South Wales West
Place	Candidate
1	Caroline Jones
2	Martyn Ford
3	Colin Beckett
4	Malcolm Biggs

Mark Reckless appointed head of policy

Former UKIP MP, Mark Reckless, has been appointed head of policy by the party.

Mark Reckless' appointment won't come as a surprise to many as he's been tipped for the post since losing his seat last month but he'll have a tough act to follow after Suzanne produced the finest manifesto in the party's history and the only manifesto from any party ever to be independently verified by an economic think tank.

The position because vacant when Suzanne Evans' contract finished at the end of May.

Tories select Tolhurst to lose against Mark Reckless again

The Conservatives have selected Kelly Tolhurst to fight Mark Reckless MP for the Rochester & Strood seat in May.

The Rochester & Strood by-election was UKIP's second by-election victory in 2014 and Tolhurst threw away a 21% Tory majority to lose by almost 3,000 votes, or 7.3%. This is one the Tories will be desperate to take back because Mark Reckless has nothing like the personal vote Douglas Carswell had in Clacton so they'll see it as Conservative -v- UKIP rather than Tolhurst -v- Reckless.

Mark Reckless is the bookies' favourite

Tomorrow is election day in Rochester & Strood and the bookies say Mark Reckless is going to walk it for UKIP.

BetVictor have UKIP favourites to win at odds of 1/125 whilst Bet365, Boylesports, Bwin, Paddy Power and William Hill all have UKIP at 1/100. Bet365 have given the Lib Dems odds of 1000/1 - the same odds SkyBet and Ladbrokes have given the Monster Raving Loony Party.

ComRes poll puts UKIP 13% ahead in Rochester & Strood

A ComRes constituency poll in Rochester & Strood puts UKIP 13% clear of the Conservatives in next month's by-election caused by the defection to UKIP and subsequent resignation of Mark Reckless.

The key statistic that will send Labour into panic mode and proves Cameron's "vote UKIP, get Labour" propaganda to be absolute nonsense is that 39% of people who voted Conservative last election will be voting UKIP, 39% of people who voted Lib Dem last election will be voting UKIP and 30% of people who voted Labour last time will be voting UKIP. We are taking votes off all three of the old parties.

Like we saw in the Heywood & Middleton by-election earlier this month, a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for Labour and don't let David Cameron or the Tory propaganda machine con you into thinking otherwise.

Party	%
UKIP	43%
Conservative	30%
Labour	21%
Green	3%
Lib Dem	3%

Conservative's Rochester "postal primary" gimmick is an election expense

UKIP have written to the Conservatives asking how they will keep within spending limits for the Rochester & Strood by-election if they go ahead with their "postal primary" publicity stunt.

The Conservatives are planning to send promotional material out to every household in the constituency inviting them to choose from two Conservative candidates to be the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the by-election. They don't plan on taking the estimated £40k cost of promoting the successful candidate through this gimmick out of the £100k limit on election spending. UKIP have taken legal advice and been advised that the cost of the primary is an election expense.

Rather than answer the question the Conservatives have described it as "yet another media stunt". The Electoral Commission will no doubt be taking an interest in this one.

Three Medway Tories defect to UKIP

The former chairman and deputy chairman of Medway Conservatives and an independent Medway councillor have defected to UKIP.

Cllr Chris Irvine was Mark Reckless' chief of staff until the MP defected to UKIP and resigned to call a by-election. He is acting as Mark Reckless' agent for the Middleton & Heywood by-election and had resigned from the Conservatives on the same day as Mark Reckless but wanted to sit as an independent until he could get feedback from his constituents. It would appear that the feedback was that they want a UKIP councillor to go with their UKIP MP.

Richard Andrews is the former chairman of Rochester & Strood Conservatives and Keith Bamber is the former Conservative group whip and deputy chairman of the local party. They have both defected to UKIP.

UKIP now has two councillors on Medway council.

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.

Two more Conservatives defect to UKIP

Two Conservative council candidates in Mark Reckless' constituency have defected to UKIP.

Cllr Paul Monck and Mark Joy have both joined UKIP today. Cllr Monck is a parish councillor on Cuxton Parish Council and Mark Joy was one of the new Conservative candidates selected just a few months ago.

Reckless forced to move family until after by-election

Mark Reckless has been forced to move his family to an undisclosed location until after the by-election caused by his defection to UKIP and resignation.

Reckless has been bullied and abused by his former Conservative colleagues who are unhappy with his defection. Nigel Farage said

Mark Reckless was subjected to really nasty, unpleasant abuse, not just at a national but local level, too.

This guy hasn't just crossed the floor and joined Ukip, he has resigned and forced a by-election. I would have thought that was actually beyond criticism because if people don't agree with it, they can vote against it.

Conservative Party whips used their party conference this week to issue a warning to any Conservatives thinking of defecting to UKIP that they would suffer personal attacks from the party if they jumped ship.

Rochester Conservatives organise fake protest against Mark Reckless

Members of Rochester Conservatives organised a fake protest against Mark Reckless in Rochester yesterday with members falsely claiming to be ordinary residents or representatives of residents groups.

Channel 4 reporter Michael Crick became suspicious of all the people suddenly slagging Reckless off until one Conservative activist let the cat out of the bag and told him they were all Conservatives, including the person claiming to be the chairman of Rochester Residents' Association who said that Reckless is a drunk.

Nigel Farage's opponent in South Thanet, Craig Mackinlay, was also present at this failed attempt to mislead the media and presumably helped to organise it. Prospective MPs usually save the lies and deceit for after they've been elected, Mackinlay seems to be bucking that trend.

Mark Reckless' defection speech in full

The moment Mark Reckless MP defected to UKIP

I'm guessing that this isn't what Dave wanted to see on Sky News the day before the Conservative Party conference ...