Douglas Carswell
© Rex FeaturesDouglas Carswell wins seat in Parliament for the anti-EU UK Independence Party
Britain's UK Independence Party - which campaigns for the country to leave the European Union - has won its first ever seat in parliament with the election of Douglas Carswell in Clacton. An arch-Euro-sceptic, he defected from David Cameron's Conservative party in August, triggering the by-election. Carswell vowed to fight "cosy cartel politics" in Westminster.

Carswell took the Clacton seat in 2010 for the Conservatives with a majority of 22,867 - a 53% share - in 2010, and increased his share to 60% standing for UKIP this time, with a convincing majority of 12,404. Carswell polled 21,113 this time against the Conservatives 8,709. That represents a huge vote against Cameron's Conservative Party is what had previously been considered a 'safe' Tory seat. The vote showed a 44% swing to UKIP.

The result proves UKIP's ability to split the Conservative Party's vote and puts doubt over its re-election prospects in the 2015 general election. Labour polled 3,957 and the Liberal Democrats took only 483 votes.

Carswell won, largely because of his local popularity as a constituency MP. However, it reflected a dissatisfaction over immigration, benefits and the powers of Brussels. But it also reflected a feeling that the major parties in Westminster have fallen out of touch with British people in general.

In has victory speech, Carswell vowed to fight for "government of the people by the people, for the people" - evoking Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address.

"Those were not his words," said Carswell, "Those were the words of that greatest of Englishmen, John Wycliffe, translator of the bible. Wycliffe's words were a precursor to an extraordinary transformation. Change in technology that re-defined the relationship between the governing and the governed.

"So too in our own time. Whether you sit astride a mass of power in Westminster, or in banking, in Whitehall or in Brussels, Wycliffe's words will become ever more insistent.

"The governing can no longer presume to know what is right for the governed. Crony corporatism is not the free market. Cosy cartel politics is not meaningful democracy. Change is coming with the realisation that things can be better," he said.

In a second by-election, the Labour Party held Greater Manchester seat of Heywood and Middleton with a much reduced majority - down from 5,971 to only 617 - because of a huge surge in UKIP votes. Liz McInnes, for Labour, won 11,633 votes, against John Bickley (UKIP), who polled 11,016. While Labour's overall share of the vote increased from 40% to 41%, UKIP went from 3% to 39% and the Conservatives fell from 27% to 12%. The result represents an 18% swing from Labour to UKIP.