Although UKIP won only a single seat in Wiltshire, the county’s true blue Tory majority is in some turmoil following Thursday’s council elections, according to Jane Scott, leader of the unitary authority.
The Tories lost three seats, including two to Labour, one of them by a single vote, and another five to the Lib-Dems as a result of the UKIP intervention with Tory voters switching to the anti-EU party.
And that is resulting in the county Tories demanding that David Cameron organises a Euro-referendum now and not putting off the vital vote until after the 2015 general election.
In a post election statement, Tory leader Jane Scott declared: “We would have won more if UKIP hadn’t had a strong showing. They finished second in many places and in others the LibDems have won because UKIP took votes from us.
“In the end people voting UKIP have helped to return a pro-European party.
“We’re going to write to David Cameron and urge him to take action on this. UKIP will continue until there is a proper referendum on the EU, which is what the people of this country want and what we should have.”
Mrs Scott said she hoped the voters had returned Tory candidates after seeing Wiltshire council successfully navigate a course through the government’s austerity budget cuts, adding: “We have managed to do that without losing frontline services and without putting up council tax.”
Stewart Dobson’s, Marlborough’s newly-elected Wiltshire councillor, told Marlborough News Online:
“I am obviously delighted to have won, and look forward to representing everyone in the East Ward in Marlborough. It was a hard fight and I would like to send my commiserations to all the other candidates.
“I was of course disappointed that Noel Barrett-Morton was unsuccessful in the West Ward as I know he worked extremely hard throughout the campaign.”
And in answer to a question on an early EU referendum, Councillor Dobson added: “I believe that most people in the country would welcome the opportunity to express their feelings on such an important issue as soon as possible.”
