Farage: More MPs Plotting Defection To UKIP
Nigel Farage has said there could be more defections to his party over the coming days following UKIP's success in the Rochester and Strood by-election.
Mr Farage said he had been in talks with both Conservative and Labour MPs, and disgruntled backbenchers would now be crunching the numbers to work out if they should jump ship.
David Cameron has vowed to win back the Kent seat for the Conservatives after Tory defector Mark Reckless regained the constituency with a majority of 2,920.
Meanwhile the party's first directly eleted MP, Douglas Carswell, is predicting UKIP could win dozens more seats in the May election - replacing Labour as the main opposition.
One constituency where the party is already upsetting the political balance is Stockton South, where a new poll shows both Labour and the Liberal Democrats losing ground to UKIP.
Stockton South in the north east of England is seventh on Labour's target list for the election after the Conservatives won the seat by just 332 votes in 2010.
But the survey by Survation has put the Tories on an unchanged 39% while Labour has dropped slightly to 37%... just as UKIP support has soared.
UKIP candidate Ted Strike is not surprised.
"I think it's going to be a very close run thing between UKIP, Labour and the Tories," he said.
"UKIP shouldn't be in the frame at all and Labour should be miles ahead but it's not working out because of Ed Miliband in particular and also the fact that they have brought in a candidate from Liverpool."
The poll suggests that UKIP support has increased from 3% to 18% while the Lib Dems backing has collapsed to 3%... down 15 points.
There is little chance that UKIP will win but the fact is, the party does not need a victory to upset the political balance.
And Labour must win key marginals like Stockton South if it is to have any hope of succeeding in May's election.
The Northern Echo's Political editor Chris Lloyd has watched the shift in the political landscape.
He believes the Lib Dem vote has gone to Labour while UKIP has, at the same time, "creamed" votes from Mr Miliband's party.
"The Tories are staying where they are because they have got a great local figure and Labour are just not managing to enthuse many people and those unenthused people are jumping over to UKIP."
The "great local figure" is James Wharton MP who was behind the private member's bill that, if successful, would have guaranteed a referendum on EU membership.
At Rototherm HNL Engineering in the heart of the constituency, workers understand why some voters are turning to UKIP.
Machine shop manager Phil McGhee, at the factory in Thornaby, said: "They have come along at just the right time to upset the applecart.
"Nobody has got any trust in the Labour Party or the Conservatives or the Lib Dems at the moment, and I think they are just grasping at something that might just change it."
Engineering machinist Steve Simpson also believes people are looking for something different and for many, UKIP fits the bill.
"Particularly the health service is in great need of looking at," he said.
"I think they have made one or two suggestions of an alternative way of looking at things and I think that might be appealing to people."
The theory had been that UKIP would split voters on the right giving Labour a leg up along the way.
But it does not seem to be panning out as simply as that.
As the UKIP leader said after the party's second MP was voted in... all bets are off.
