'A massive leap' Nigel Farage hails historic day as Ukip takes votes off 'arrogant' Labour #BringBackOurGirls #Entertain9jar via @myentertain9jar

WELL the Ukip electoral earthquake seems to be under way and - despite the fact that I have been talking about it for so long - it has still taken the political class by surprise.

Nigel Farage is delighted with today's results[PA]

Part two comes on Sunday night when the European results come through. Fingers crossed for that.

But what has particularly delighted me today is that the clusters of elected councillors I was hoping for in particular local authority areas, have come through.

We have big representation in Thurrock, Castle Point, Basildon, Great Yarmouth, Great Grimsby, Rotherham and elsewhere besides.

This is a massive leap forward in the battle to break into Westminster constituencies in numbers in the general election next year.

I have been on a tour of our new Essex strongholds today and it is like a quasi-religious experience. Men and women from all kinds of backgrounds were rushing up to shake my hand. I have even found time for a pint of beer or two with some of them.

The metropolitan media has been keen to point out that our performance in London is much weaker. Well there are two factors behind that.

First, London may only be 20 miles up the road from the south Essex corridor, but the capital does have, in general, a very different attitude from the rest of the country to issues like uncontrolled immigration.

Equally importantly, our party organisation in London is well behind what it's like in other parts of the country. I am very keen to make sure it catches up quickly.

It is not just in the south and east of England that we have shown we can excel. I am thrilled that we have also broken through in the north. In Hull and in Sunderland, in terms of share of the vote, and of course in Grimsby and Rotherham too with lots of councillors.

Nigel Farage celebrates in traditional style [AP]

Finally, the political commentators are waking up to what I have been saying for ages: that we are making big inroads into the Labour vote.

Nigel Farage

Places and people neglected by Labour for far too long are turning to Ukip as the alternative.
Finally, the political commentators are waking up to what I have been saying for ages: that we are making big inroads into the Labour vote.

I am told that there is an inquest going on inside the Labour high command about why they didn’t see us coming.
I can’t answer that question beyond speculating that natural arrogance and getting away with taking people for granted for a very long time have something to do with it.

I guess this means that Labour will come after us very aggressively in the year ahead. Well, I am ready for that. Don’t believe them when they try and depict us as mad privatisers – we are not.

What we are is a party that believes in getting better value for money for taxpayers and cutting out layers of overpaid senior management and politically correct, non-productive activities.

We will spell out plenty of money-saving policies in our election manifesto. But let me make this clear now: the National Health Service free at the point of use is something we fully believe in.

Labour says it does as well – what a pity it tried to turn it into the International Health Service during its own disastrous spell in power.

As for the Conservatives and Dave – well they are still looking down their noses at us. They think we are “appalling” people. They think that we and the people who vote for us are the lower orders. Well, the People’s Army does not discriminate by social class.

You will find people from every conceivable background in our ranks. Come and join us and make our dream come true: Britain back in its rightful place as a self-governing country. I tell you, it really is going to happen.