“Nigel Farage last night declared Ukip to be “the most national of all the parties” as it wrought havoc in by-elections in both the Tory south and Labour’s northern heartland. The party made political history by winning the Clacton poll and finally breaking into Westminster….In Clacton, the Tory defector Douglas Carswell secured a resounding victory with a 12,404 majority and 60 per cent of the vote. He will now return to the Commons under a purple banner as the party’s first elected MP. The Essex vote offered no crumbs of comfort for Labour or the Lib Dems either.Labour saw its vote share more than halved to 11 per cent while the Lib Dems lost their deposit, the 10th time it has happened since entering coalition.” – The Times(£)
>Today: ToryDiary: Yes, a great night for UKIP. But what will matter next May is the marginals
“Nigel Farage declared UKIP were now a ‘national party’ as he revealed he wanted to be minister for Europe in a coalition government. The party leader now hopes to use the stunning victory as a springboard to winning several seats at next year’s general election, boasting of a ‘shift in the tectonic plates of British politics’.” – Daily Mail
“Mr Carswell, a radical thinker who quit the Tories because it failed to implement political reforms, warned his new party to curb its robust language and embrace immigrants. “To my new party, I offer these thoughts. Humility when we win. Modesty when we are proved right. If we speak with passion let it be tempered with compassion. Let us be a party for all Britain – and all Britons, first and second generation as much as any other. Our strength must be our breadth. If we stay true to that there is nothing we cannot achieve.” He cited Lincoln’s Gettysburg address – government for the people, by the people, for the people – an expression first coined by Englishman John Wycliffe that “changed the relationship between the governing and the governed”.” – Daily Telegraph
“In Clacton, the LibDems got only 483 votes. They are probably the only party for whom these by-elections are a genuine harbinger of the general election. By-elections, as everybody kept saying, are exceptional: people behave differently (perhaps irresponsibly) when they know they are not electing a government.” – Janet Daley Daily Telegraph
“The election strategists will tell you that a handful of swing voters in swing seats, not seaside towns, will decide the next election. By now clever Tory computers will know their addresses, which magazines they subscribe to and which slogans will grab their attention. Somehow, amidst all this, a more basic message has been forgotten: that the Conservatives are the original One Nation party and remain the best hope for people in places like Clacton. This by-election was a chance to remind Britain of this fact. It’s a great pity that it was missed.” – Fraser Nelson Daily Telegraph
“Ukip came within a few hundred votes of snatching victory from Labour last night in the Heywood and Middleton by-election. Nigel Farage’s party now looked set to win its first seat in the House of Commons. In Lancashire, Liz McInnes the Labour candidate only narrowly managed to hold on to the seat after Ukip saw a last minute surge of support. Its candidate John Bickley secured 11,016 votes to Ms McInnes’s 11,633, giving her a majority of just 617.” – The Times(£
“Labour might have held on to Heywood and Middleton in Thursday’s byelection, but Liz McInnes’s narrow victory ought to cause serious consternation within the party. Though turnouts in byelections are almost always lower than at general elections, for a majority to be cut from almost 6,000 to 617 is no cause for celebration at all. Conceding defeat, McInnes’s Ukip challenger, businessman John Bickley, said he would have won given a few more days.” – The Guardian
“Within minutes of the result, Labour MPs warned Mr Miliband’s hold on working class communities was slipping. John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, said: “If Ed Miliband does not broaden the Labour coalition to better include working class opinion then we cannot win a majority government. Ed Miliband does a lot of listening. Now he needs to do a bit more hearing.” – Daily Telegraph
“Three unions representing local government and school support workers have suspended a planned strike in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Unison, GMB and Unite – which said they represented more than 1.5 million people in these roles – had organised a strike next week over pay. But they said Tuesday’s action had been suspended after the Local Government Association (LGA) made “new proposals”.” – BBC
“Public sector workers are still earning thousands of pounds a year more than those in the private sector and benefit from far more generous pensions. In fact, the average public sector pay and pension deal is worth 17 per cent more than the private sector, a study shows. Although the latest figure from 2012 is down from 20 per cent in 2007, it still means only limited progress has been made in bridging the gap since the financial crash. The report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies will anger private sector workers as thousands of health workers prepare to strike this month over pay rises.” – Daily Mail
“David Cameron is under pressure to start negotiations on TV election debates with the other party leaders after Labour and the Liberal Democrats accused him of trying to sabotage the programmes. Although the Prime Minister insists he wants the live debates to go ahead, the two other parties are worried that the Conservatives have not set a date for talks to agree them. The Tories promised that discussions would start after the party conference season, which ended on Wednesday.” – The Independent
“People arriving in the UK from areas hit by Ebola face “enhanced screening” for the virus at Heathrow, Gatwick and Eurostar terminals. Downing Street said passengers would be asked questions and potentially given a medical assessment. It comes as Whitehall sources say it is “very unlikely” a British man who died in Macedonia on Thursday could have contracted the disease. The UK Foreign Office had said it was urgently investigating the reports.” – BBC
“The London Mayor became the latest big figure to attack the police use of anti-terror ‘RIPA’ laws to access journo’s phone records. Speaking in London, he said: “It is absolutely vital for our country and for this city that we protect free speech. “It is of course right that the police should be able to investigate serious criminal matters. But it is also crucial that journalists should be able to protect their sources and to give whistleblowers the confidence to come forward.” He added: “We will have to insist that in future the police will not be able to see a journalist’s phone records without some kind of judicial approval.” – The Sun(£)
“A new “mansion tax” has been introduced by Scottish ministers to fund a cut in sales duty on affordable homes. The land and building transaction tax, which takes effect from April next year, has a progressive scale of rates, under which buyers of homes worth £1m, for example, will pay £78,300 in tax, compared with £50,000 under the current stamp duty system.” – The Guardian