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 With distrust of mainstream parties and anxiety about immigration
rising, UKIP, the UK Independence Party, overturned a majority of
almost 10,000 to beat Cameron's party in a special election in the
southeast English constituency of Rochester and Strood six months
before an unusually close-run national vote.
UKIP, which favors an immediate British exit from the European Union
and sharply lower immigration, won the contest despite Cameron
ordering his party to do everything it could to hold the seat and
visiting himself five times.
Its victory will unsettle businesses, investors and European
partners who fear Britain could be slipping toward an exit from the
European Union as Cameron becomes ever more Eurosceptic to try to
see off the threat from UKIP.
Comments by Mark Reckless, UKIP's winning candidate, won't steady
those nerves.
"If you believe that the world is bigger than Europe, if you believe
in an independent Britain then come with us and we will give you
back your country," Reckless told clapping supporters after his
victory.
 Nigel Farage, UKIP's leader, said the vote showed it would be much
more difficult to forecast who would govern the world's sixth
largest economy in future.
"It is now unpredictable beyond comprehension," he told BBC radio
after celebrating with a pint of beer, a drink he has used to
portray himself as being in touch with ordinary voters.
Cameron's right-leaning Conservatives and the opposition left-wing
Labour Party have taken turns to rule Britain since 1945, with a
much smaller party, the Liberal Democrats, playing a supporting role
in government since 2010.
UKIP's challenge to the Conservatives and a simultaneous Scottish
nationalist threat to Labour could force much more complicated
alliances after the election in May.
SETBACK FOR CAMERON
Reckless was a Conservative lawmaker until he became the party's
second member of the lower house of parliament to defect to UKIP,
triggering Thursday's vote. His new party hopes his electoral
success will spur other defections.
He won 16,867 votes or just over 42 percent of the vote, giving him
a majority of 2,920. That was less than polls of voter intentions
had suggested but a comfortable win.
Cameron's Conservatives, who won the seat in 2010 with a majority of
almost 10,000, came second with 13,947 votes even though they had
initially been very bullish about victory.
Labour came third with 6,713 votes. It had hoped the result would
focus media attention on Cameron's woes. But instead it found itself
on the spot after Emily Thornberry, the party's top legal expert,
tweeted a photograph of a voter's home draped in England's national
flags with a white van parked outside.
Thornberry's decision to tweet the image was interpreted as mocking
by some on the social network and proof her party had lost touch
with its working class support base.
She quit Labour's team of potential future government ministers as
the issue threatened to overshadow the vote.
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UKIP THREATENS ALL PARTIES
The electoral loss is a bitter blow to Cameron's personal authority
after he ordered his party to "throw the kitchen sink" at the
contest to try to hold Rochester.
He said he was determined to win the seat back at the national
election, arguing only a Conservative government could safeguard the
country's economic recovery.
Labour is talking up the possibility of a leadership challenge
against Cameron from within his own party. There is, however, no
evidence that such a challenge is imminent. If it did occur analysts
believe Cameron would survive but be damaged.
Labour have their own problems, with polls showing they may be wiped
out next year in Scotland, a stronghold for generations, where the
separatist Scottish National Party has surged despite losing a
pro-independence referendum in September.
Labour controlled much of the Rochester constituency before 2010 and
its relatively poor showing could resurrect internal party grumbling
about the performance of its leader Ed Miliband.
Cameron once sought to dismiss UKIP as full of "fruitcakes, loonies
and closet racists".
But in May, the party won European elections in Britain -- the first
time a nationwide vote had not been won by Labour or the
Conservatives since World War Two. Last month, it won its first
directly elected parliamentary seat after former-Conservative
Douglas Carswell defected and won the subsequent by-election.
Cameron tried to neutralize UKIP by promising to renegotiate
Britain's EU ties before holding an "in-out" referendum on
membership in 2017. But he has yet to spell out exactly what changes
he wants or forge strong alliances with EU partners to win them. His
strategy has alarmed some EU allies.
Opinion polls show the Conservatives are narrowly behind the
opposition Labour party with around 32 percent of the vote
nationwide. UKIP currently stand at around 15 percent.
Douglas Alexander, the man coordinating Labour's campaign to win
power next year, said UKIP was a problem for all parties.
"The principle fuel in UKIP's tank is more anti-politics than
anti-Europeanism," he said. "There's a deep anger in the way that
the country's run and who it's run for and people feel shut out of
the economy and ignored by politics.
"There is no single policy answer to this, no speech or campaign
tactic that can address all of the disengagement that people feel."
(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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