UKIP made strong gains in three by-elections held this week, adding still more pressure on the Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, to take a tough line on Europe.
The U.K. Independence Party came in second in Middlesbrough and Rotherham, and finished third in Croydon North, in the elections on Thursday Nov 29,2012 when voters chose replacements for two lawmakers from the opposition center-left Labour Party who died, and one who quit Parliament.
The by-elections in Middlesbrough and Croydon North were caused by the deaths of Labour’s Stuart Bell and Malcolm Wicks, respectively, while Denis MacShane of Labour resigned his Rotherham seat after a highly critical report about his parliamentary expenses.
Labour held on to all three seats and increased its share of the vote. But by beating the Conservatives in two of the three seats, the Independence Party, which campaigns against the E.U. and for tougher immigration controls, highlighted a potential threat to Dvid Cameron.
UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, claimed that the Independence Party had now supplanted the Liberal Democrats as Britain’s third-largest political force. “You can call it a protest vote,” he said on Friday Nov 30,2012
No comments:
Post a Comment