Newark by-election: Conservatives fend off Ukip

Prime Minister David Cameron with Prince Charles in Bayeux, Normandy. Picture: Getty

Robert Jenrick saw off the threat from the Eurosceptics, but the Tory majority was cut significantly from 16,152 to just 7,403.

Mr Cameron insisted it was a “very good result” for the Tories, and the party’s first by-election win while in government for more than 20 years.

But speaking in Bayeux ahead of D-Day commemoration events, he acknowledged the challenge posed by Ukip.

Asked how he would win back support from Nigel Farage’s party he said: “We need to work between now and the next election to say very clearly we have got a long-term plan, we are getting Britain back to work, we are cutting people’s taxes, we are helping hard-working people. The job isn’t finished yet but we are on the right track, let’s stick at it.”

Ukip surged from a distant fifth in 2010 to second, pushing Labour in to third place, while Liberal Democrat support was obliterated, leaving the candidate trailing in sixth place.

In a sign of the depth of concern in the Tory camp over the possibility of losing, all the party’s MPs were told to visit the seat to drum up support and the Prime Minister hit the campaign trail four times.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage conceded his party had been defeated while the votes were still being counted, but hailed the result as Ukip’s “strongest ever by-election performance”.

MEP Roger Helmer increased the anti-European Union party’s support from just 1,954 votes in 2010 to 10,028.

The by-election came fresh on the back of Ukip’s historic success in the European Parliament elections when it topped the poll.

Although Ukip failed to come close to taking the seat, it increased its share of the vote by 22% and secured a swing from the Tories of 15%.

Speaking after the result, Mr Farage said: “I think there’ll be an awful lot of Conservatives with a majority of less than 10,000 who will look upon this result in sheer horror.”

But he admitted he would have liked to have done better in Newark.

“Yes, I mean the majority’s halved and we thought we’d bitten into it even more than that, but nonetheless for Ukip it’s still a good night’s work,” he said.

The Lib Dem candidate David Watts polled 1,004 votes - not enough to hold the party’s deposit.

Labour’s Michael Payne polled 6,842 votes, down 4.6%.

The by-election was triggered by disgraced ex-Tory Patrick Mercer’s decision to stand down.

He quit the Conservative whip last year while an investigation was carried out into claims that he asked questions in Parliament in return for money and stood down as an MP in April ahead of the findings being published.

New MP Mr Jenrick said: “The people of Newark have voted to back this Government, to back this Government’s long- term economic plan to secure the future of this constituency and of this great country.”