UKIP are aiming to bounce back with a vengeance in Lichfield and Burntwood – by winning over local young people.
Defeated parliamentary candidate John Rackham finished third with 8,082, as Conservative Michael Fabricant was re-elected to parliament with 55.4 per cent of the vote.
The party improved its position from 2010 when Karen Maunder finished last with 2,920 votes. And UKIP now claims it will go head-to-head with the Green Party in the battle to attract young people into politics.
A UKIP spokesman said: “We want to attract everyone from all backgrounds to our party.
“In UKIP it doesn’t matter what your university background is. Unlike the Conservative or Labour Party, it doesn’t matter to us if you haven’t gone to Oxford or Cambridge.
“We’re far from finished as a party in Lichfield and Burntwood. We’re looking to rebuild our branch to give us new energy and new ideas that we can take forward into the 2020 general election campaign.
“Our candidate John Rackham stood because he wanted to breathe fresh air into British politics and there are over 8,000 people in Lichfield and Burntwood that agree with us that Westminster needs to change and that it can’t carry on as normal.
“John increased our share of the vote in Lichfield and Burntwood, which has given us a strong base to build from.”
If young people (who have had some education) want to join a party that wants a Britain of the 40’s or the 50’s what on earth are they going to be like when they are 40 years old?
UKIP want to win younger voters because their current supporters are a dying breed.
This is true, the average kipper has one election left in them at best.