UKIP takes its first ever seat on Thurrock Council (From Thurrock Gazette)
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UKIP takes its first ever seat on Thurrock Council
11:09am Friday 4th May 2012 in News
Robert Ray.
AVELEY and Uplands has elected Thurrock’s first ever UKIP councillor.
Robert Ray took the seat for the UK Independence Party with a majority of 47, ousting the Conservatives.
Mr Ray said: "I'm pleased, we had put a lot of hard work in.
"The previous candidate put in a lot of the ground work in the last campaign and built us a base.”
Mr Ray aknowledged the recent People’s Pledge vote, in which more than 13,000 residents in Thurrock were in favour of a referendum on the UK’s EU membership, helped his campaign gain momentum.
He said: "It's clear there are concerns towards Europe.
“The big parties deride the Europe vote, but Europe does count.
"I didn't really use the People's Pledge result in my campaign.
“The results just showed what was generally known everywhere, but we knew that there was a momentum that we could build on."
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