Tory By-Election Blitz To Counter UKIP Threat

David Cameron and his Tory Cabinet colleagues are poised to make an unprecedented five visits to Rochester and Strood in the by-election triggered by the defection of Mark Reckless to UKIP.

The Tory by-election blitz was revealed to Sky News after the Prime Minister and his campaign chief Lynton Crosby held a behind-closed-doors council of war with Conservative MPs at Westminster.

After the meeting, a party source said all Conservative MPs are being urged to make at least three campaign visits to Rochester and Strood in an attempt to prevent a repeat of Douglas Carswell's triumph in Clacton last week.

The source said Mr Cameron would visit "a number of times".

But a senior member of the Government later told Sky News the PM and the Cabinet would visit five times, with Mr Cameron's first visit this Thursday.

Traditionally, it used to be almost unheard of for Prime Ministers to campaign in by-elections.

But Mr Cameron has changed all that and visited Newark, where the Conservatives successfully held off a UKIP challenge this summer, four times. Five would be a new record.

The order to Tory MPs came only hours after Conservative Chief Whip Michael Gove moved the writ for the by-election in the Commons, meaning polling day will be Thursday 20 November.

Speaking at a meeting of the Parliamentary Conservative Party, Mr Cameron told his MPs they would have to campaign "very, very hard" to prevent Mr Reckless, who had a Tory majority of 9,953 in 2010, winning his seat for UKIP.

"I don't think anybody is underselling the fact that it is going to be a real fight and a real campaign," the party source told journalists after the meeting.

"Nobody is complacent. There is going to be a strong campaign and there needs to be."

But at least Mr Cameron still has a sense of humour about his battle with UKIP chief Nigel Farage and Labour leader Ed Miliband.

After telling the Tory conference: "On May 7 you could go to be with Nigel Farage and wake up with Ed Miliband," this time he told his MPs: "You start with a beer and you end up with a dull whine."