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

South Shields by-election office

Rotherham: second, Middlesbrough: second, Croydon: third

Yesterday's by-elections in Rotherham, Middlesbrough and Croydon North saw fantastic results for UKIP with two second's and a third.

In Rotherham UKIP's Jane Collins came a very strong second, head and shoulders above the rest of the pack and securing almost half the Labour vote.  To put this into context, Rotherham has returned a Labour MP at every single election since 1933.  The worrying result in Rotherham is that three extremist parties took third, fourth and sixth places - the BNP, Respect and the English Democrats (that said, I know the former-Lib Dem who stood for the English Democrats and he has no truck with the extremist element of his party).  The Lib Dems (remember them?) came an embarrassing eighth with less than 10% of the UKIP vote and lost their deposit.  The turnout was just 33.8% which is appalling for a mid-term by-election and suggests Labour voters stayed at home to punish their party.

Rotherham
Lab	9,966
UKIP	4,648
BNP	1,804
Respect	1,778
Con	1,157
Eng Dem	703
Simon Copley	582
Lib Dem	451
Trade Union & Socialist	281
Paul Dickson	51
EDL	29
Turnout: 33.8%

In Middlesbrough UKIP's Richard Elvin came second, some 318 votes clear of the third-placed Lib Dem and 927 votes clear of the Tory candidate.  Middlesbrough is another safe Labour seat and Labour candidate Andy McDonald secured over 60% of the vote.  The Tory only managed to beat the fringe Peace Party candidate by 3 votes.

Middlesbrough
Lab	10,201
UKIP	1,990
Lib Dem	1,672
Con	1,063
Peace	1,060
BNP	328
Trade Union & Socialist	277
Mark Heslehurst	275
Turnout: 25.9%

In Croydon North UKIP's Winston McKenzie managed a comfortable third, 540 votes clear of the Lib Dem candidate and 2,737 votes behind the second-placed Tory.  Labour retained this safe seat with an increased majority.

Croydon North
Lab	15,898
Con	4,137
UKIP	1,400
Lib Dem	860
Green	855
Respect	707
Christian Peoples' Alliance	192
National Front	161
Communist	119
Loony	110
911 Was an Inside Job	66
Young Peoples' Party	63
Turnout: 26.4%

Vote UKIP in Rotherham, Croydon and Middlesbrough

UKIP is contesting three by-elections tomorrow in Rotherham, Croydon and Middlesbrough.

The highest profile is of course the Rotherham by-election where Jane Collins was already expected to rock the boat before the child snatchers at Rotherham social services took three children off their foster parents because they were UKIP members.  UKIP has gone up in the polls, bookies have shortened the odds of a UKIP win and the party received 750 new membership applications over the last few days.  It seems slightly distasteful to be profiting from the misfortune of three innocent children and their foster parents but this is the reaction of the general public, it's not been planned or instigated by the party and if it means we get a UKIP MP to help stop this sort of thing happening again then at least something positive has come out of it.  Rotherham has been Labour since 1930 and this vacancy only came up because their previous troughing Labour MP, Denis McShane, admitted stealing from the taxpayer.

Richard Elvin is UKIP's candidate for Middlsebrough, another pretty safe Labour seat which has become vacant following the death of the incumbent Labour MP, Sir Stuart Bell.

The final candidate is Winston McKenzie who is standing in Croydon North.  This is another Labour seat which has become vacant after the incumbent Labour MP, Malcolm Wicks, died.  Winston hit the news this week for his stupid comments on gay adoption which he has since withdrawn and which has led to him being removed from his post as a UKIP spokesman.  Despite his antiquated views on gay adoption Winston is a passionate campaigner, an energising speaker and committed community worker.