COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

A second Conservative MP has defected to UKIP in a shock announcement today.

Rochester and Strood MP Mark Reckless announced his decision at the UKIP conference in Doncaster today.

Mr Reckless said he would stand down as a Conservative MP to fight a by-election because his constituents were ‘the boss’.

He said: 'I will resign my seat in Parliament, trigger a by-election and your national executive committee allowing, stand for UKIP.'

It comes just 24 hours before the start of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham tomorrow.

Ukip defector is heading for a by-election win

David Cameron faced a second by-election blow last night after a new survey suggested Ukip’s latest Tory MP defector Mark Reckless is on course for victory in Rochester.

A Survation poll for The Mail on Sunday shows that Mr Reckless is nine points ahead of the Tories, and that Nigel Farage’s fans are not put off by the Prime Minister’s warning that voting Ukip will result in Ed Miliband winning power.

The result is a slap in the face for Tory chairman Grant Shapps, who called Mr Reckless a ‘liar’ for breaking his promise to constituents not to defect.

And it flies in the face of a national poll which claimed the Conservatives had moved ahead of Labour for the first time in two and a half years after Mr Cameron’s tax cutting pledge at the Tory conference.

The poll is the first in Rochester, Kent, since Mr Reckless’ defection, and was carried out after Mr Cameron’s tax giveaway pledge, suggesting areas where Ukip is strong are yet to be won over.

When Mr Reckless announced he would call a by-election, Conservative chiefs were confident they would win. They believed maverick Mr Reckless lacked the credibility and popularity of fellow Tory MP defector Douglas Carswell, who is expected to retain his Clacton seat in Thursday’s by-election in the Essex seaside town by a big margin.

But the Survation poll shows Mr Cameron faces an uphill battle in defeating Mr Reckless next month.

Mr Reckless’ nine-point lead is far less than Mr Carswell’s massive 44-point lead in a Survation poll last month, but it means he is the early favourite to be Ukip’s second MP.

Today’s survey shows Mr Reckless on 40, with the Tories on 31 – 18 down on their performance at the 2010 Election in Rochester – Labour 25 and the Lib Dems a paltry two. Unlike Mr Carswell, Mr Reckless is no pin-up in his constituency. Only 25 per cent of Conservative voters say Reckless is a hero for defecting, half Mr Carswell’s rating in Clacton. And 31 per cent say he is a ‘traitor.’

Only 12 per cent said they will vote Ukip because they like Reckless: Carswell’s personal vote was nearly three times higher.

Michael Gove ‘absolutely 100%’ sure no more Tory MPs will defect to Ukip



Conservative chief whip Michael Gove has hit back at Ukip claims that two MPs are on the verge of joining Nigel Farage, saying he is “absolutely 100%” sure there will be no more defections in the wake of the Rochester & Strood byelection.

The senior Tory, who is in charge of party discipline, said he is “quite confident” his party will win, despite all the polls over the last seven weeks suggesting Ukip is on course to have its second MP. One bookmaker has even started paying out on a victory for Mark Reckless, the former Tory MP whose defection to Ukip triggered the contest in the north Kent constituency.

As voters went to the polls, Gove dismissed the claims by Reckless that there are two Conservatives considering whether to jump ship if Ukip win the crucial byelection.

Any more defections, following those of Reckless and Ukip’s first MP, Douglas Carswell, are likely to provoke a crisis in the Conservative party about the haemorrhaging of support and potentially provoke a move on David Cameron’s leadership.

Asked about the MPs who may be plotting a switch in allegiance, Gove said: “There aren’t any. I’m one of the MPs Mark Reckless has spoken to in the last seven weeks. I bumped into Mark and said hello during the course of the campaign, so I must be one of the two. No one’s going to defect… I’ve talked to lots of different people across the party. I’m absolutely 100% convinced no one else will defect.”

He added: “I’ve got a £50 bet on the Conservatives winning so I hope I will be able to wipe the smile off the bookmakers’ face later. I’m quite confident… I am hopeful that we will win and confident that we put up a good fight. We’ll see what happens at the count. But I feel fairly confident on the basis of what I’ve seen.”