LONDON – The British anti-immigration party, UKIP, has easily won its second seat in parliament as a former Conservative lawmaker ran well ahead of his old party.
Mark Reckless, the second Conservative to leave the party and win a seat for UKIP, won 42 per cent of the vote in a special election in the Rochester & Strood constituency in southeast England.
The Conservative candidate polled nearly 39 per cent of the vote, followed by Labor just below 17 per cent. The Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in the governing coalition, polled less than 1 per cent.
After being declared the winner, Reckless said Friday that UKIP has emerged as a radical party representing the concerns of the working class. Reckless had forced the special election by resigning from his parliamentary seat in the same constituency.
