Friday, 24th July 2009UKIP's historic by-election result is a cause for celebration by party supporters, says UKIP Leader Nigel Farage:
"Everyone worked extremely hard for an excellent result and we congratulate our candidate Glenn Tingle, a real local guy, who has shown by the massive support he's received in Norwich North that the British people really do identify with the UK Independence Party and what it stands for."Glenn's huge popularity saw UKIP record the biggest percentage gain of the top five contenders, surging a record 9.5% this time around to poll 4,068 votes, representing nearly 12% of the total cast.A delighted Glenn said: "This result shows that we are major league – bring on the General Election! "But UKIP'S best-ever by-election performance in Norwich North has been soured by the BBC's stubborn refusal to give the party's result the recognition it deserves.The result could have been even better had the BBC not refused to give Glenn Tingle and UKIP the airtime it deserved, preferring to allow a minor party such as the Greens on television panels and radio discussions.Nigel Farage is furious at the snub.He said: "There is a clear bias in the BBC against the UK Independence Party and this result shows that they are wrong in freezing us out of key political television and radio programmes.""We've shown in Norwich North that we are a major player on the UK political scene and that our performance in the European Elections, where we recorded the second highest percentage of vote among all the parties, was no fluke.
