Second place for UKIP district council candidate ‘fantastic’

The UKIP runner up in today’s Horsham District Council by-election hailed the result as ‘absolutely fantastic’.

By The Newsroom

Published 3rd May 2013, 17:19 BST

JPCT 030513 County Council election count at Christs Hospital, Horsham. Peter Westrip. Photo by Derek Martin

Peter Westrip finished 80 votes behind Conservative candidate Diana Van Der Klugt for the HDC Chantry ward, with Liberal Democrat Rosalyn Deedman finishing third.

“It’s absolutely fantastic to be second,” he said: “This is the beginning. Now people will see UKIP is not a wasted vote it’s not a protest vote.

“There’s no way that David Cameron can say it’s a protest vote when we are consistently coming second.”

He added: “Now they [the Conservatives] have got to start taking note of what the electorate think.”

After being elected to HDC Ms Van Der Klugt said: “I’m very pleased to have won and I will be working very hard to represent the electorate.”

She said that one of the key issues voters talked to her about on the doorstep was development in Storrington.