CLACKTON, England, October 10 (RIA Novosti), Mark Hirst – The UK Conservative and Labour parties are "finished" following two historic by-elections in England, David Coburn, Member of the European Parliament for the Scotland region for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) told RIA Novosti Friday.
UKIP won its first Member of Parliament seat in the constituency of Clackton with a swing of 44 percent to UKIP from the Conservative Party and only narrowly avoided winning the Labour Party safe seat of Heywood and Middleton in the North of England by 617 votes last night.
Coburn told RIA Novosti that although UKIP didn't win the Labour seat it represented an even more significant victory than his party's success in securing the Clackton constituency.
"I think the result in Heywood and Middleton, although we narrowly avoided taking the seat, is perhaps even more significant than the win in Clackton, where we expected to take that seat," Coburn said.
"It shows that the Labour Party are in deep trouble and that UKIP are capable of really eating into their vote in what should have been a safe seat for them. Now they have a majority of just over 600," Coburn added.
"To take votes from Labour in one of its heartlands and safest seats is phenomenal and coming from 2 percent to securing 39 percent is incredible," Coburn stressed, adding that it "shows that the Labour Party is absolutely finished and that UKIP can take seats from Labour in the North of England and in Scotland".
"A lot of people have been let down by the Labour Party in Scotland, they are fed up to the back teeth and don't want to vote Labour anymore. They're going to vote UKIP," Coburn predicted.
There had been speculation that UKIP might form a coalition with the Conservative Party following the 2015 UK General Election, although if last night's swings to UKIP were repeated across the United Kingdom, the party would secure a landslide overall victory.
However, Coburn ruled out a future coalition with the Conservatives.
"I think the likelihood is that we will hold the balance of power. I don't think there is any likelihood of a Conservative and UKIP coalition. I don't think anybody in UKIP could wear that. Quite frankly, the best the Conservatives might have expected is a supply vote from us at the House of Commons, although I'm still not sure the UKIP membership would agree to that either," Coburn said.
"I think the Conservatives are finished. We look to have our own majority in the House of Commons and we don't need to rely on others. It is the Conservative Party who are in serious trouble and in danger of splitting our vote against Labour," Coburn added.
The by-election in Clacton was caused by the defection of Douglas Carswell, who previously represented the constituency on behalf of the Conservative Party, but was later chosen to be UKIP's candidate and went on to win the seat with a majority of 12,068 votes.
According to Coburn, UKIP's win, with the biggest swing of any political party in British electoral history, would encourage other Conservative MPs to consider joining his party.
"I think the result in Clacton will be very important in helping to encourage other Conservative MPs who might be considering defecting to UKIP, although the question might be - Shouldn't they have done it a bit quicker?" Coburn said.
"I think a lot of them are going to be panicking and I think a lot of them within the Conservative Party will be spitting their porridge out this morning in panic and I think that will be true of many in the Labour Party. I think Mr. Miliband [Labour Party leader] will be very unhappy this morning," Coburn added.
"I think a lot of Conservative voters will now realize that when they vote UKIP they get UKIP. They don't need to worry about not voting for the Conservative Party, and inadvertently letting the Labour Party in, because UKIP are taking the Labour Party apart as well," Coburn noted.
