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Guy Fawkes' distant relative elected as UKIP local councillor

Retired headteacher Philip Fawkes, who shared a common ancestor with the famous Gunpowder Plotter, won the South Waterside ward in Hampshire County Council for UKIP.

A distant relation of Guy Fawkes has been elected as a UK Independence Party councillor.

Retired headteacher Philip Fawkes and the would-be bomber shared a common ancestor in the Gunpowder Plotter's 15th century great-great-grandfather.

Mr Fawkes won the South Waterside ward in Hampshire County Council for Ukip.

When Mr Fawkes's candidacy was announced, party leader Nigel Farage said it showed "the blood of rebellion still runs in his veins".

Mr Fawkes defeated the Tory incumbent Alexis McEvoy, taking the ward with a majority of 315 and a 37.2% share of the vote.

Guy Fawkes's plan to kill King James I, MPs and Lords at the state opening of Parliament in 1605 by detonating 36 barrels of gunpowder stashed around the Palace of Westminster was foiled.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage today hailed a "remarkable" night for his UK Independence Party in local council elections, which he said put them in with a chance of securing a seat at Westminster.


With many votes yet to be counted, Ukip gained 42 county council seats in England and also claimed second place behind Labour in the South Shields parliamentary by-election, while the two coalition parties suffered a drubbing.

Ukip became the second largest party in Lincolnshire, winning 16 seats and depriving Conservatives of overall control.


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And the party - which won no councillors at all when the seats were last contested in 2009 - picked up 10 in Hampshire, nine in Essex, three in Gloucestershire, three in Somerset and one in Dorset.

Mr Farage told ITV1's Daybreak: "It's been a remarkable result for us.

"We have always done well in European elections... but people haven't seen us as being relevant to local elections or in some ways general elections.

"So for us to be scoring, on average, 26% of the vote where we stand is I think very significant indeed."