Britain's anti-EU party take second seat in blow for Cameron

Britain's anti-European Union UK Independence Party (UKIP) won its second seat in parliament on Friday, in a by-election that could signal major upheaval in a general election in six months' time.
      
Mark Reckless was re-elected with 42 percent of the vote in Rochester and Strood in southeast England, after defecting in September from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party to UKIP, which wants strict quotas on immigration.
      
Furious campaigning by the Conservatives failed to stem the UKIP advance and their candidate lagged behind on 35 percent, a blow to Cameron, who had vowed to "throw everything" at Thursday's by-election battle and visited the constituency himself five times to campaign.
      
Reacting to the defeat, the prime minister vowed he was "absolutely determined to win" the seat back in next year's national vote, but UKIP leader Nigel Farage insisted he was "absolutely confident" the seat would remain within his camp.
     
In his acceptance speech, Reckless made an appeal to all voters to make UKIP the kingmaker at the general election in May 2015 in the increasingly likely outcome of a hung parliament.
      
"Whatever constituency you live in, whatever your former party allegiance, think about what it would mean to have a bloc of UKIP MPs at Westminster large enough to hold the balance of power," Reckless said.
      
"If you believe that the world is bigger than Europe, if you believe in an independent Britain, then come with us and we will give you back your country."       

Farage hailed a "huge, huge victory".
      
"They (the Conservatives) threw the kitchen sink at it, but despite their boasts, we have beaten the ruling party of the day in this life and...