The Colour Purple: How UKIP Conquered England and Wales

Despite being frozen out of all but one parliamentary seat in Britain, in reality UKIP put in a stunning performance at last week’s general election in terms of pushing it’s vote, putting it third place nationally.

Not only did UKIP take one in seven of all votes, nearly as many as the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, and the Greens combined, it also enjoyed the highest national swing of any party. The swing was so high, in fact, that it was the party enjoying the greatest upwards swing in almost every constituency in England and Wales.

The Independent shares this helpful explorable map, which puts graphically each constituency by party enjoying the greatest rise in support. Looked at this way, UKIP has truly captured the narrative in England and Wales, while the Scottish Nationalists face no competition north of the border.

These statistics, and those showing the 120 constituencies where UKIP came second, will no doubt hasten calls among some for urgent electoral reform.