![[The University of Leicester]](unilogo.gif)
Tactical voting: a boon to UKIP?
The recent surprise result for the UK Independence Party in a local by-election has supported research at the University of Leicester that suggests the party might be set to make inroads into the Tory vote.
UKIP party leader Nigel Farage. Image source: the Euro Realist Newsletter, under Creative Commons licence.
UKIP finished second in the recent Barnsley Central by-election which, according to academics in our Department of Politics and International Relations, reveals that the party is well-placed to gain Eurosceptic Tory voters.
Using the first academic survey of UKIP’s general election candidates, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, alongside responses from over 2,000 UKIP general election voters, taken from a YouGov survey, the researchers analysed the performance of the party that emerged from its Spring Conference in Scarborough with talk of replacing the Liberal Democrats as the third party in British politics.
Drs Philip Lynch and Richard Whitaker said UKIP were capable of taking votes from each of the three main political parties with its potent mix of anti-establishment, Eurosceptic and anti-immigration messages.
