Farage: UKIP could hold balance of power in May election

Nigel Farage says his UK Independence Party could "hold the balance of power" at the next general election following a win in the Clacton by-election.

Douglas Carswell took the seat by 12,404 votes giving UKIP its first elected MP.

Mr Carswell, who resigned as a Conservative MP , knocked his old party - which enjoyed a 12,068 majority at the 2010 election - into second place.

In the night's other by-election, Labour held on to Heywood and Middleton but UKIP slashed its majority to 617.

Mr Farage told the BBC's Jon Kay: "The whole of British politics has been shaken up in a way that the complacent Westminster class could never even have contemplated."