2014 Rochester and Strood by-election

2014 Rochester and Strood by-election
← 2010 20 November 2014 (2014-11-20) 2015 →
Rochester and Strood constituency
Turnout50.6%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Candidate Mark Reckless Kelly Tolhurst Naushabah Khan
Party UKIP Conservative Labour
Popular vote 16,867 13,947 6,713
Percentage 42.1% 34.8% 16.8%
Swing New party Decrease14.4% Decrease11.7%
MP before election

Mark Reckless
Conservative

Subsequent MP

Mark Reckless
UKIP

A by-election was held on 20 November 2014 for the UK parliamentary constituency of Rochester and Strood in Kent, England.[1] The sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Mark Reckless called it on joining the UK Independence Party (UKIP), from the Conservatives. He resigned 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%, and Labour third with 16.8%. The other ten candidates lost their deposits, including the Liberal 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.

  1. ^ "Rochester by-election date set for 20 November". BBC News. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  2. ^ "Mark Reckless defects to UKIP from Tories". BBC News. 27 September 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference telegraph_result was invoked but never defined (see the help page).