The Executive Director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship has told Premier he's 'not happy but not worried' about the success of UKIP in the local council elections. The UK Independence Party says it's sent a shockwave through British politics after making strong gains in the local elections.
The party's made big strides across the country averaging a quarter of the vote in the wards it stood in. Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have lost seats while Labour also made gains.
The success of UKIP comes just days after it was described as a 'collection of clowns' by Cabinet Minister Ken Clarke. The Tory MP accused the party of having no positive policies and was merely a protest party "against" foreigners and immigrants. Speaking after seeing the initial results this morning UKIP leader, Nigel Farage made light of the comments.
He said:
"Send in the clowns! We've been abused by everybody, attacked by the entire establishment who did their best to stop ordinary decent people from going out and voting UKIP and they have done in big, big numbers.
"If you speak to the Westminster elite they will tell you it's just a protest and nothing to worry about.
"When I meet voters they say 'Nigel, we're voting for you because we believe in what you stand for' and these votes are not easily going to go back to the Labour Party and the Conservatives."
Colin Bloom is the Executive Director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. Speaking on Premier's News Hour he said he wasn't all that surprised by the results:
Tory chairman Grant Shapps accepts the party needs to listen more:
He said:
"We hear the message, we get it, we understand what people are saying.
"They want to see change faster in this country and that's what we intend to deliver over the next couple of years."
Premier's Political Editor Martyn Eden gave his thoughts on the results to Premier's Marcus Jones on the News Hour.
Meanwhile, Labour has held the South Shields by-election - but their majority was heavily reduced by UKIP. The Tories were pushed into third place in David Miliband's old seat with the Liberal Democrats coming in seventh - losing their deposit. Its Deputy Leader Simon Hughes recognises UKIP's threat.
He said:
"I'm not complacent about UKIP but we're a party of Government and Government parties generally have a harder time in elections in the middle of a parliament.
"We're fighting to make sure at the end of our five year term we have a fairer Britain where the economy is strong and where people do see that we've turned the economic corner."
UKIP said it will look to strongly contest the next Westminster by-election and is looking forward to next year's European elections.