Mapping UKIP's polling strength

Mark Reckless (R) defected from the Conservatives to UKIP

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As opinion polls predicted, the UK Independence Party has won the by-election in Rochester and Strood, giving the party its second elected MP.

Conservative incumbent Mark Reckless triggered the contest when he announced his defection to UKIP in September.

In October, another defector from the Tories to UKIP, Douglas Carswell, took the seat of Clacton with almost 60% of the vote.

And in the Heywood and Middleton by-election the same day, UKIP slashed Labour's majority to 617.

Professor of politics at Strathclyde University John Curtice said the most recent result had boosted the party's chances of getting a "significant share of the vote" at the general election in May.

"UKIP will now be able to point to Rochester to say to voters, 'Look, voting for UKIP is not a waste of time, we can actually win,'" he said.

Opinion polling carried out within constituencies in the past year suggests that UKIP has increased its support significantly in many areas since the 2010 general election when it garnered just 3% of the vote nationally.

In the voting intention research, UKIP came top in five locations, including Thanet South in Kent, where party leader Nigel Farage has announced he will be standing.

And the party came second in 22 of the 87 constituencies surveyed, knocking traditional parties into third and fourth place.

UKIP also came second in the other two by-elections in 2014: Newark and Wythenshawe and Sale East.

The full data from the polling, which was mainly carried out by former Tory party chairman Lord Ashcroft's company, reveals UKIP took second place behind the Conservatives in 17 locations and behind Labour in six.

In places where Labour topped the poll, UKIP were mainly in third spot or lower.

Prof Curtice said the October by-election results were "a clear confirmation that UKIP do pose a threat to the votes of all three parties".

He said that the Conservatives were coming under particular pressure from UKIP, but that "all three political parties will be wondering exactly what will face them in six months' time [at the general election].

"All of them are losing votes to UKIP and none of them can be entirely sure what the consequences will be," he said.