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| UKIP's Reckless wins Rochester seat | UKIP's Reckless wins Rochester seat |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The UK Independence Party has its second elected MP at Westminster after Mark Reckless won the Rochester and Strood by-election by 2,920 votes. | |
| Mr Reckless received 16,867 votes to the Conservative candidate Kelly Tolhurst's 13,947, with Labour's Naushabah Khan third on 6,713. | |
| Turnout was 50.67% in the contest, which was triggered by Mr Reckless's defection to UKIP from the Tories. | |
| Mr Reckless said: "If UKIP can win here, we can win across the country." | |
| In his acceptance speech, Mr Reckless said Rochester and Strood had been UKIP's 271st most winnable seat. | |
| In a message to his constituents, he said: "You remain my boss, do not let me forget it." | |
| Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps said he was disappointed with the result but said there were "different circumstances" in a by-election. | |
| "We will fight every single day to win this seat back," he added. | |
| UKIP also beat the Conservatives at last month's Clacton by-election. | |
| Prime Minister David Cameron had promised to "throw the kitchen sink" at the Rochester and Strood campaign after the defeat to another former Tory MP, Douglas Carswell, in Clacton. | |
| UKIP's winning margin was smaller than it was in Clacton, but Mr Reckless still won 42.1% of the 40,113 votes cast. | |
| The Green Party candidate, Clive Gregory, came fourth with 1,692 votes, and the Liberal Democrats came fifth with 349. |