UKIP win the Rotherham By-election

On Thursday 16 May, UKIP won a council seat in the Labour heartland of Rotherham. Tradition has it that even a donkey with a red rosette would get elected in Rotherham; not anymore. 

If UKIP can win in Rotherham then they can win anywhere.

Election Result, Rawmarsh Ward, Rotherham 16 May, 2013

Caven Vines (UKIP) 1143 46.5% (+32.6%)
Lisa Marie Wright (Lab) 1039 42.3% (-8.9%)
Martyn Lawton Parker (Cons) 107 4.4% (-10.5%)
William George Baldwin (BNP) 80 3.3% (-11.1%)
Andrew Tony Gray (TU and Socialists against cuts) 61 (2.5%)
Mohammed Meharban (LibDem) 28 (1.1%)

Turnout 25.7%

This was the result for the same ward on 6 May 2010, when the vacating Labour councillor Shaun Wright was elected.

	Labour	WRIGHT, Shaun	2,656	51.22%
	Conservative	TIPTAFT, David Howard Palmer	772	14.89%
	BNP	BALDWIN, William George	744	14.35%
	UKIP	STINSON, Douglas	721	13.91%
	Green	PENYCATE, Richard William	292	5.63%
Voter turnout			54.1%

  
It can be seen that the UKIP vote has increased from 13.9% in 2010 to 46.5% in 2013. An increase of 32.6%. The BNP result is further evidence that the BNP is finished under its present leader.

The following is from the Yorkshire Post

A SEEMINGLY “safe” Labour seat on Rotherham Council has been taken by Ukip in a by-election, in what is the first time the party has won a seat from Labour.

The Rawmarsh seat had been vacated by South Yorkshire’s new Labour police and crime commissioner Shaun Wright, and his wife Lisa Marie Wright stood as the Labour candidate.

However, Ukip’s Caven Vines beat Mrs Wright by 104 votes, in what he described as a “coup.”

Councillor Vines said: “We fought a hard campaign in a staunch Labour ward and ended up taking the seat by over 100 votes, slashing the previous Labour majority of over 1,000.

“In all honesty we didn’t think we would necessarily win.”

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said his party was now “hitting Labour where it hurts, as we always said we would.”

He added: “For a long time Miliband and his party have enjoyed sitting back and watching Ukip attack Tory strongholds, but they have been far too vain to fully comprehend that Labour voters are naturally moving in our direction too.

“Our policies really talk to men and women in Labour heartlands, who are now seeing the party taking their support for granted due to the sort of majorities they were able to build up in the Blair years.”

UKIP on course to win seats on Southend Council next year

From the Southend Echo

COULD UKIP take seats on south Essex councils next year? 

It’s the question on many politicians’ lips.

Last week, Ukip swept to victory in six Tory-held seats in Rochford, Basildon and Castle Point.

Next year, council elections are likely to be held on the same day as the European elections, heightening fears among some Tories that anti-European Ukip could win in some seats in Southend. At least one senior Tory may be vulnerable to the rising threat of Ukip.

Ukip and opposition councillors believe Tony Cox, councillor responsible for public protection, waste and transport, may lose his West Shoebury seat to Southend Council’s first Ukip member.

Ukip’s East of England chairman, James Moyies, has stood in the ward in the past three elections, losing out to Conservative Elizabeth Day by just 73 votes last year(2012).

Mr Moyies, who lives in Malmsmead, Shoebury, said: “The likelihood is I will stand again.

“My share of the vote has moved from eight per cent to 34 per cent last year(2012) – and that’s when we were about eight per cent in the polls nationally.

“I fully expect us to win seats across Southend.”
 
Ukip have never won a seat on Southend Council, despite fielding nine candidates in 2011 and seven last year(2012).

The party finished fourth in all but two seats in 2011, but managed three third places and two second places last year, although the number of votes it received failed to rise significantly.

Ukip took six seats in south Essex in last week’s county council elections - including the supposed safe Tory seat of Rayleigh South – and next year’s borough council election is expected to be held on the same day as European election, which usually draws out more of the populist anti-Europe party’s supporters.

Mr Moyies expects Ukip to also win seats in Kursaal and possibly Southchurch in Southend.

Mr Cox, who was first elected in 2006 and re-elected in 2010, said: “I have always said, and some people wouldn’t agree, there is no such thing as a safe seat.

“Complacency can bring other candidates from other parties to challenge you.

“I will go into the elections defending my record.”

Martin Terry, spokesman for the Independent group, said: “Already, prior the surge of Ukip, we felt that the Conservatives would lose more seats next year.

“The rise in Ukip will increase the likelihood of that happening.  They are now a major player and are neck-a-neck with Labour and the Lib Dems nationally.”

Labour leader Ian Gilbert said: “Where Ukip have done well in previous years, for example West Shoebury, where they came close to winning last time, they will be in with an excellent chance.” 

                                ---------------------

The last local elections in Southend were on May 3, 2012 

West Shoebury Ward looks the most vulnerable. In 2012, UKIP were only 73 votes behind the Tories.

West Shoebury Ward, 3 May 2012

Liz Day (Cons) 860
James Moyies (UKIP) 787
Gray Sergeant (Labour) 328
Stuart Freeman (Eng Dems) 120
Charlie Row (LibDems) 106 

UKIP didn't stand in Kursaal or Southchurch wards in 2012 but they are both thought to be vulnerable to a UKIP surge.

UKIP win the Cliftonville East by-election

Cliftonville East, Thanet District Council, 9 May, 2013

Rozanne Duncan (UKIP) 699 (41%)
Wendy Chaplin (Conservative) 526 (31%)
Alan Currie (Labour) 352 (20%)
Louise Oldfield (Independent) 112 (7%)
Proctor (Liberal Democrat) 32 (2%)

Total votes 1,721 (35% turnout)

UKIP won the seat from the Conservatives

Link: This is Kent
 

BNP come last in Barking by-election

Longbridge Ward, Thursday 9 May 2013 

Syed Ahammad (Labour) 1555
Bert Bedwell (UKIP) 466 (19.3%)
Paul Ayer (Conservative) 284
Dave Croft (LibDem) 78
Giuseppe De Santis (BNP) 37 (1.5%)

Turnout 30%

Link: Barking and Dagenham Post

Following in Mosley's Footsteps

In January, the ex-BNP Scottish Chairman, Gary Raikes, launched New British Union, which is a Fascist party modelled on Sir Oswald Mosley's pre-war Blackshirts.

After serving as an MP for both Labour and the Conservatives, Sir Oswald Mosley formed the British Union of Fascists in October 1932 after a visit to Benito Mussolini in January that same year. The B.U.F changed its name to British Union in 1937.

Fascist Flag over Westminster, 

Sir Oswald Mosley launches The British Union of Fascists
  

New British Union now has 44 officers, 11 overseas representatives and several thousand members. There will be a national conference in October at a venue yet to be announced.

Link: New British Union

There is a full report on New British Union in yesterday's SUN newspaper although as to be expected it is full of the usual rubbish.

Link: NBU Media

UKIP's suspended candidates who were once BNP members came second in their wards

About a week before the elections, UKIP suspended two candidates who were once members of the BNP. Alan Ryall's and Sue Bowen's names were both on the leaked BNP membership list.
 
It was too late to take their names off the ballot paper but they were forbidden to put out UKIP campaign literature the week before the election. 

They still managed to come second with respectable percentages.
 
Suffolk County Council, Wickam Ward
 
Michael Bond Conservative 1214 46.58%
Alan Ryall UKIP 555 21.30%
Jeremy Bale Labour 527 20.22%
John Ball LibDem 310 11.90% 

Cornwall Council, Tintagel 

Glenton Bruce Brown LibDem 664 57% 
Susan Jane Bowen UKIP 313 27%
Paul William Charlesworth Conservative 185 16%

Results for UKIP's more Controversial Candidates

Anna Marie Crampton

Anna-Marie Crampton was disowned by UKIP before the election for claiming that the second world war was engineered by Zionists hoping to create the state of Israel. 

Link:The Argus
 
UKIP withdrew their support for her but it was too late to take her name off the ballot paper. She did very well narrowly missing coming third. She still got more votes than the other UKIP candidate, Sonia Lucy Finch who continued to get party support.


Crowborough, East Sussex County Council

Richard Stogdon Conservative 1866 elected 20.9% (-9.8%)
Sylvia Mary Tide Conservative 1723 elected 19.7% (-10.0%)
Stephen Isted Independent 1189
Anna-Marie Crampton UKIP 1157 13.0%
Sonia Lucy Finch UKIP 1127 12.6%
Brendan Clegg Labour 469
David Malcolm Neeves Labour 393
Beverley Anne Johnstone LibDem 340
David Shaw LibDem 327
Scott Harvey Mason Green 325

Alex Wood 

Alex Wood, a Ukip candidate in Somerset, was suspended from the party after a photo appeared in a newspaper showing him making what appeared to be a Nazi salute.

He denied it and claimed he was reaching out to grab a camera from his girlfriend. 

The day before the elections, Nigel Farage stated, ‘I’ve looked carefully into this and spoken to Alex, and I believe him when he says that he was angrily trying to take a camera off his girlfriend who was annoyingly taking pictures of him in the pub imitating a pot plant. 

Despite the smear campaign against him, Alex Wood still managed to come second.

Blackmoor Vale, Somerset

William Wallace Conservative 1410
Alex Wood UKIP 665
Damon John Hooton LibDem 412
Jo Penberthy Labour 224

Both Anna-Marie Crampton and Alex Wood were suspended about a week before the elections and so were unable to do much election campaigning.