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Rochester and Strood constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Aby-election was held on 20 November 2014 for theUK parliamentaryconstituency ofRochester and Strood inKent, England.[1] The sittingMember of Parliament (MP)Mark Reckless called it on joining theUK Independence Party (UKIP), from theConservatives. Heresigned his seat.[2]
Reckless retained the seat, and polled 42.1% of the vote as the UKIP candidate. The Conservative Party came second with 34.8%, andLabour third with 16.8%. The other ten candidates lost theirdeposits, including theLiberal Democrats whose 0.87% vote share was a record low for them, and the lowest ever for a party in government.[3]
This was the last by-election of the 2010–2015 Parliament.
The constituency comprisedthe cathedral town of Rochester,Strood, parts ofChatham,Brompton,St Mary's Island as well as the ruralHoo Peninsula and outlying villages.[4]
Reckless's announcement followed that of his parliamentary colleague and close friend,[5][6]Douglas Carswell, who defected to UKIP on 28 August 2014, resigning and subsequently being returned as MP forClacton, in northEssex.[7] On 27 September, at theUK Independence Party (UKIP)Annual Conference atDoncaster, which coincided with the eve of the Conservative Party Annual Conference, Reckless announced his plans to follow suit.[2] Carswell won theClacton by-election (on 9 October 2014) with 59.7% of the vote.[8]
Reckless had previously been recognised as one of the most malcontent Conservatives in theHouse of Commons, having led a rebellion of 53 Conservative MPs over theEU Budget which inflicted the first Commons defeat on theCon-LibDem Coalition Government.[9]
Medway Council, who administered the election, published the statement of persons nominated on 24 October, confirming 13 candidates would contest the by-election.[10]
Mark Reckless was the UKIPparliamentary candidate.
The Conservative Party fieldedKelly Tolhurst[11] as its candidate[12][13] selected by a postalopen primary;[14]Anna Firth was the other candidate, and both were serving Councillors: (Tolhurst representingRochester West Ward onMedway Council, and Firth representingBrasted,Chevening &Sundridge Ward onSevenoaks Council). The result of the primary was announced on 23 October, with Tolhurst winning narrowly with 50.44% of the vote. The Conservative Party reported that 5,688 voters took part in the selection process.[15]
TheLabour candidate, PR consultant and kickboxerNaushabah Khan, was selected in November 2013.[16][17][18]
TheLiberal Democrat candidate was Geoff Juby, a Medway Councillor who contested unsuccessfully the General elections of 2001, 2005 and 2010.[19]
TheGreen Party candidate was Clive Gregory.[20] His name was listed on the ballot as "Green Party – Say No To Racism".[10]
Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader ofBritain First,[21] stood as her party's first parliamentary candidate.[22] Her name appeared on the ballot with the description "Vote British!"[10]
Hairy Knorm Davidson stood for theMonster Raving Loony Party, Nick Long for theLewisham-basedPeople Before Profit, and Dave Osborn for the Patriotic Socialist Party.
Four independent candidates also declared their candidature: Mike BarkerMBE, Christopher "JustQCharley" Challis, Stephen Goldsbrough andCharlotte Rose. Barker is a former MoD scientist who ran on a campaign of making theSS Richard Montgomery safe.[23] Rose had stood in October'sClacton by-election in Essex, describing herself as "standing up for sexual freedom".[24]
The results were declared at 04:15 UTC on Friday, 21 November 2014.
Reckless retained the seat (winning with his new party) with 16,867 votes, a majority of 2,920, with just over 42% of the vote (he received 49.2% of the vote as the Conservative candidate in 2010). This was the second highest UKIP vote share in a parliamentary election after the contest in Clacton the previous month, and represents a swing of 28.3% from Conservative to UKIP. (For a comparison with other high swings, seeUnited Kingdom by-election records).
The Conservatives came second, with their share of the vote decreasing by 14.4 percentage points compared with the 2010 general election, and Labour's share decreased by 11.7 points.
The 4.2% polled by the Green Party was their best result since the 2010 general election, while the Liberal Democrats recorded their lowest vote share since their founding in 1988. It was also lower than any of theirLiberal predecessors had polled since the First World War.[25]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UKIP | Mark Reckless | 16,867 | 42.1 | New | |
| Conservative | Kelly Tolhurst | 13,947 | 34.8 |  14.4 | |
| Labour | Naushabah Khan | 6,713 | 16.8 | 11.7 | |
| Green | Clive Gregory | 1,692 | 4.2 |  2.7 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Geoff Juby | 349 | 0.9 | 15.5 | |
| Monster Raving Loony | Hairy Knorm Davidson | 151 | 0.4 | New | |
| Independent | Stephen Goldsbrough | 69 | 0.2 | New | |
| People Before Profit | Nick Long | 69 | 0.2 | New | |
| Britain First | Jayda Fransen | 56 | 0.1 | New | |
| Independent | Mike Barker | 54 | 0.1 | New | |
| Independent | Charlotte Rose | 43 | 0.1 | New | |
| Patriotic Socialist Party | Dave Osborn | 33 | 0.1 | New | |
| Independent | Christopher Challis | 22 | 0.1 | New | |
| Majority | 2,920 | 7.3 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 40,065 | 50.6 | 14.3 | ||
| UKIPgain fromConservative | Swing | 28.3 | |||
The election was widely regarded as a key contest between UKIP and the Conservative Party.[27] The Conservatives, being in Government and previous holders of theseat opted for a later election[28] giving time for a longer campaign and to select its candidate by a local primary. There was discussion over whether the costs of the primary should be entered under the party's permitted election expense allowance, as UKIP argued, or not, as the Conservatives argued.[29]
The election agent forMark Reckless was Chris Irvine who was himself a Conservative Councillor on Medway Council representing Peninsula Ward at the time ofMark Reckless defecting. Irvine promptly resigned as a Conservative Party member[30] on the news of the Reckless defection and sat as an Independent Councillor citing Medway Council's decision to approve planning permission to develop Lodge Hill as his primary reason for leaving. Irvine would subsequently resign his seat on Medway Council[31] after joining UKIP to force a further local by-election in Peninsula ward to be held on the same day as the Parliamentary by-election. Irvine would become the first elected UKIP Councillor on Medway Council, taking just under 50% of the vote.
Michael Crick, ofChannel 4 News, reported that the Labour Party was conducting a "token effort", because according to party sources, Labour claimed not to be able to afford a full electoral campaign.[32] Rochester and Strood's predecessor seat,Medway, had been held for Labour byBob Marshall-Andrews between 1997 and 2010. Marshall-Andrews had been elected despite his very different stance on immigration, telling a voter during the 2001 election campaign: "The difference between you and me is that you are a racist and I am not. [… ] And under no circumstances are you allowed to vote for me. You will not vote for me!"[33]
TheRoyal Mail refused to distribute leaflets on behalf ofBritain First, judging them to be in breach of laws regarding the sending of threatening mail.[34]
The Conservative party have paid a fine without question to the Electoral Commission for misrepresenting their campaign expenditure in their financial returns.[35][36]
Reckless produced a leaflet attacking the Conservatives for failing NHS patients, featuring a picture of him (taken when he was a Conservative MP) with Dr Phillip Barnes, Acting Chief Executive ofMedway NHS Foundation Trust.[37] The Trust's chair, Shena Winning, complained to UKIP, pointing out that public bodies cannot be associated with any politically biased information that could be seen to give any party an electoral advantage and that he had not asked permission to use the picture. Winning requested the leaflet be withdrawn and a public retraction issued.[28]
At ahustings meeting on 18 November, televised byITV Meridian, Reckless gave an answer to a question from the floor in which he appeared to suggest that EU migrants could, in future, be subject to deportation. UKIP leaderNigel Farage dismissed the remarks as a "minor confusion"; UKIP added it was not "the party’s policy to round up migrants and put them on a boat at Dover".[38][39]
The by-election was dubbed 'The Battle for Rochester' following the media storm surrounding the defection ofDouglas Carswell to UKIP in August 2014.[40] The previous by-election campaign that was triggered by Carswell's defection became known as'The Battle for Clacton'.[41]
On polling day,Shadow Attorney GeneralEmily Thornberry tweeted a picture of a house (in Strood) adorned with England flags with awhite van parked outside, which drew accusations ofliberal elitism including from her fellow Labour Party MPSimon Danczuk among others.[42] Shortly after close of polls, Thornberry resigned fromEd Miliband's Shadow Cabinet in response to the controversy the tweet generated. The following day, Miliband described thetweet as conveying a "sense of disrespect".[43]
| Date(s) conducted | Polling organisation/client | Sample size | Con | Lab | LD | UKIP | Green | Others | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Nov 2014 | By-election result[44] | 40,113 | 34.7% | 16.7% | 0.9% | 42.1% | 4.2% | 2.1% | 7.3% |
| 7–10 Nov 2014 | Ashcroft[45] | 543 | 32% | 17% | 2% | 44% | 4%[46] | 1% | 12% |
| 27–28 Oct 2014 | Survation | 1,012 | 33% | 16% | 1% | 48% | 2% | 2% | 15% |
| 17–21 Oct 2014 | ComRes[permanent dead link][47] | 949 | 30% | 21% | 3% | 43% | 2% | 1% | 13% |
| 4 October 2014 | Survation/Mail on Sunday[48] | 677 | 31% | 25% | 2% | 40% | 1% | 0.2% | 9% |
| 6 May 2010 | General Election Results | 47,971 | 49.2% | 28.5% | 16.3% | – | 1.5% | 4.5% | 20.7% |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Mark Reckless | 23,604 | 49.2 | 6.6 | |
| Labour | Teresa Murray | 13,651 | 28.5 | 13.1 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Geoff Juby | 7,800 | 16.3 | 3.9 | |
| English Democrat | Ron Sands | 2,182 | 4.5 | New | |
| Green | Simon Marchant | 734 | 1.5 | New | |
| Majority | 9,953 | 20.7 | 19.7 | ||
| Turnout | 47,971 | 64.9 | 2.5 | ||
| Conservativehold | Swing | 9.8 | |||
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