Reckless Sworn In After UKIP By-Election Win

David Cameron has vowed to win back Rochester and Strood for the Conservatives in the General Election - as Nigel Farage predicted more MPs are considering defecting to UKIP.

Mark Reckless won the by-election in Kent with 16,867 votes - a majority of 2,920 over his former party - after a hard-fought campaign dominated by the issue of immigration.

Mr Reckless, who triggered the vote when he defected from the Conservatives in September, was heckled by some Labour MPs as he was sworn in at the House of Commons at 9.30am, little more than five hours after his victory was confirmed.

The result represents a serious blow for David Cameron, who personally spearheaded the Conservative campaign, with less than six months to go until the General Election.

Mr Cameron said: "I am absolutely determined to win this seat back at the General Election because anything other than a Conservative government would put our recovery at risk and mean Ed Miliband in Downing Street."

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Farage said the result was "huge" and that his party had beaten the Conservatives even though they had used the Prime Minister as their "pin-up boy".

He said: "Despite their boasts and despite their belief that they would win Rochester, we have beaten the governing party of the day in this sort of life-death struggle.

"What it really does, is to make any prediction for the General Election frankly irrelevant. I think the whole thing now is up in the air."

Mr Farage dismissed suggestions that the result was merely a protest vote.

He said. "It's always a protest vote and that's a comfort blanket that the commentariat and the Westminster political class use.

"Meet the people who voted UKIP yesterday. They weren't protesting. They were voting for us because they believe in us... because they think that UKIP might just be able to change things."

The UKIP leader said he would be "very surprised" if there were not more Labour and Tory defections to his party before the election in May.

Mr Reckless told those gathered at the election count: "If we can win here, we can win across the country. If you vote UKIP, you get UKIP."

His win came weeks after another defector, Douglas Carswell, triumphed for UKIP in a by-election in Clacton, Essex - and the two men celebrated with a Westminster selfie on Friday morning.

Mr Reckless arrived at the bar of the House to be sworn in flanked by Mr Carswell and Tory Philip Hollobone, MP for Kettering, who wore a purple tie.

He was approached by several MPs during a procedural division at the start of the day's business, including right-wing Tory David Nuttall.

Despite rumours of further defections to come, the margin of defeat for the Conservatives, which was smaller than predicted by some, could allay fears within the other parties that more Eurosceptic backbenchers will be tempted to jump ship.

Conservative MP Grant Shapps told Sky News the result was "disappointing" and that he did not know if the party would suffer more defections.

Labour - which earlier saw shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry resign over what was called a "snobbish" tweet about an English flag-draped house in the constituency - came third.

Ed MIliband said: "This is a devastating result for David Cameron. This is one of his safest seats - he told us he was throwing everything at it, he assured us he was going to win, and in fact he lost and he lost badly."

The Liberal Democrats finished a humiliating fifth, with just 349 votes, and lost another deposit.

The Green Party (1,692 votes) outpolled the Lib Dems by almost five to one to take fourth place, trebling its share of the vote in the process.

A total of 40,113 votes were cast - a turnout of 50.67%.