THE political landscape of West Devon was rocked this week when the UK Independence Party leapfrogged the Tories and Liberal Democrats to top the poll in the Euro elections.

UKIP, which wants complete withdrawal from the European Union, won two seats in the giant seven-member South West region ? and in the West Devon and Torridge part of the region it took 34% of the vote, well ahead of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

But the man who aims to fight the seat for the Tories at the next election dismissed the UKIP showing as a ?protest vote?.

The UKIP surge saw the election of party leader Roger Knapman, who lives at Coryton in West Devon.

He joins Graham Booth as UKIP?s second member in the South West region.

Mr Knapman said he was delighted at UKIP?s success ? although not totally surprised: ?We thought we had a very good chance ? for the first time the majority of people in this country were against political union because they don?t feel it?s necessary for free trade.

?The people of the South West, and West Devon, of course, are noted for their Euro-scepticism and judging by the number of placards there were around the area, I wasn?t that surprised by the result.?

Mr Knapman said UKIP voters came from across the political spectrum and not from any particular party.

He said his party also did well from the ?don?t bother to vote? sector of the electorate.

?We had an abnormal number of calls from people who hadn?t voted for ten or twenty years, who suddenly felt they now had a reason to engage in the political process,? he said.

Mr Knapman gave away little regarding his party?s strategy in the coming months.

?We now have by-elections, there?s a referendum, there?s a general election in twelve months ? we need to try and decide what our resources will permit us to do and where our priorities lie. We will do whatever is the best course of action to get us out of the EU.?

Mr Knapman said UKIP would be selecting candidates for the next general election ?almost immediately? and there were many people who wanted to stand.

But he discounted standing for West Devon and Torridge himself: ?I have no particular plans to do so ? I think I shall be busy enough,? he said.

Mr Knapman was elected leader of UKIP, which now counts the high-profile broadcaster Robert Kilroy-Silk as one of its MEPs, in October 2002. He was Conservative MP for Stroud between 1987-97 and became a political advisor to UKIP in 2000.

Geoffrey Cox, prospective parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives in West Devon and Torridge, said he was not surprised at UKIP?s success in the polling booths.

He said: ?I have known for many weeks, if not months, that many hundreds of Conservatives were going to vote UKIP, for the perfectly understandable reason they wanted to register a protest.?

Mr Cox said UKIP also attracted protest votes from the other main parties, but, he felt a general election result would be quite different.

He said he had always been ?strongly opposed to further encroachment by Brussels into our government? and at the next general election, people in West Devon would have a clear choice between his Euro-sceptic stance and the pro-European position taken by the new West Devon prospective parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats, David Walter.

Mr Walter said his party?s share of the vote in this constituency had increased in comparison with the 1999 Euro election: ?Nationally I think our party has done very well; we have more than held our own. Obviously, UKIP had a good night locally and I think all the major parties will need to reflect on communicating their messages better with the electorate.?

Mr Walter also forecast a general election result would be very different: ?UKIP are a one-issue party. When it comes to crime, housing, jobs, education, people will return to a more traditional party.

?Now UKIP have had this good result, they will be subject to much greater scrutiny at local and national level and I?m afraid they?ll be found wanting.?

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