What Ukip victory in Clacton means for our region

A wave from the victor - Douglas Carswell, the new Ukip MP for Clacton Credit: ITV Anglia

The voters of Clacton have made history by making Douglas Carswell the first elected UKIP MP.This result had been predicted from the day six weeks ago that the former Tory MP announced he was defecting to UKIP and resigned to trigger this by-election. But even Douglas Carswell was surprised by the scale of his victory, telling me, "I'm a little bit dazed and humbled. You can probably tell by the emotion in my voice I'm a little bit wow".

In his first speech on winning the new UKIP MP said , "There is nothing we cannot achieve in Essex and East Anglia and the rest of England" . And it is true that Party leader Nigel Farage believes the East of England is UKIP's most fertile territory. In May 2013 the Party picked up tens of County Councillors across our region, gaining 11 in Cambridgeshire, 14 in Norfolk and 9 in Essex . And then this May they topped the European poll in the East winning more than a third of the votes. UKIP will hope their win in Clacton gives them momentum for the General Election next May , they believe they can get further MPs in their target seats in the East, places like Thurrock , Castle Point and Great Yarmouth.

But how well UKIP can do at a General Election is still a great unknown. In the 2009 European Elections they polled 20% of the vote in our region, at the General Election the following year they got just 2% . And Clacton , big though their victory was, is considered their no 1 target seat not just in our region but in the whole country . If UKIP were going to win anywhere it would be here.

But with this by election win UKIP have certainly kept up momentum and the political spotlight is on the Party. The rise of UKIP is something the other political parties are now taking very seriously indeed.