Ukip vote goes to Labor and Independents in South East England

Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer joins party members in Chatham, Kent, where the party has taken full control of Medway Council for the first time since. 1998 Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA

Former Ukip voters in the south east of England have reverted to Labor or rejected the mainstream parties outright instead of supporting the Conservatives, according to local election results released on Friday.

The party's disappearance from British politics appeared to be complete as of Friday afternoon, when the party lost all of its advisers in the areas where the results were counted.

In the 2014 election, it received the largest share of the vote of any party. European elections led by Nigel Farage, but membership has since dwindled to less than 4,000.

Ukip, now led by former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton, once had 17 councilors in Thurrock, but they all left the party in 2018 to sit as the Thurrock Independents group.

During the last three In local elections, nine out of 11 Wards switched from former Ukip councilors to the Conservatives, with only two electing Labour.

This year's local elections, however, seem to buck this trend, with three out of six going Labor. , two tories and one independent.

It remains to be seen if this pattern is repeated in similar districts, including Thanet, which had 30 Oakip councilors at the height of the party's popularity.

Tendring and Great Yarmouth also hosted 13 and 12 representatives. respectively.

Independent Conquests

However, in Boston—another Okeep heartland—there was an outright rejection of the political mainstream from their former supporters.

While the Conservatives gained most of the former Ookeeps in 2019, they lost by this election, 10 councilors, and their places were taken by independent candidates.

The Independents got Boston from the Tories, who took power in 2019 after four years of complete lack of control. The council was also controlled by independents between 2007 and 2011.

East Lindsey, which voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU with over 70 percent supporting Brexit in 2016, also rejected the Conservatives on Thursday .

The number of Tory councilors has fallen from 33 to 26 amid general public concern about Brexit and disappointment among party supporters that its opportunities have not been used.

Labor has never done particularly well in Lincolnshire, where voters switched to independent councillors, who often made up more than 40 percent of council members on that council.

An exception to this trend was found in Dudley, where Labor's share of the vote continued to fall, peaking to rise of Ukip.

The Conservatives, however, have seized Ukip polling stations as their number of councillors nearly doubled from 25 to 44.