Mark Reckless splits with Nigel Farage on Ukip immigration policy after Rochester by-election win
Barely 24 hours after being sworn in as Ukip's second elected MP Marke Reckless is as already criticising his party leader Nigel Farage.
Speaking to the Times, Reckless said Ukip's immigration policy "changed on Wednesday, and I'm a bit sore about how I came out of that".
Speaking on Tuesday at a hustings event during the Rochester and Strood by-election Reckless said Ukip would have a "transitional" period in terms of immigration policy and that “people who are currently here to have a work permit at least for a fixed period”.
The implication being that many European immigrants already in the UK could face deportation. However, Ukip was quick to clarify and row back from the comments with a spokesman saying:
It is absolutely not our policy to round up EU migrants and put them on a boat at Dover and send them back to wherever they came from.
Reckless argued that Ukip policy, until it was changed by Farage on Wednesday, was to have a transitional period until a newer more permanent arrangement could be made as part of negotiations with the EU.
He went on to say he didn't agree with the original Ukip policy saying he was in favour of letting people who had already moved to the UK stay because it was "right thing for our party in terms of how we want to look to the country".
Ukip won the Rochester and Strood by-election by a comfortable margin beating the Tories by almost 3,000 votes.