Sir, – Writing as the UK Independence Party candidate for Thirsk and Malton at the General Election, I would like to congratulate Kevin Hollinrake, our new MP, and the five other candidates on a fine campaign, fought on all sides with much good humour and courtesy. I would also like to thank sincerely the 7,805 electors who voted UKIP, up from 2,502 in 2010.

I wanted to wait until after the Queen’s Speech before writing to ensure that the new Government had indeed committed both to a referendum on EU membership and to starting the process of extricating our country from the sinister European Court of Human Rights. These were both central to UKIP’s manifesto and the fact that they have been adopted by the Government represents a great moral victory for our party. Those who voted UKIP, despite achieving only one MP for nearly 4 million votes under First Past the Post, should not be disheartened, as these two policies were among the great prizes that UKIP sought.

Following all its soul-searching after Polling Day, the General Election results have also clarified UKIP’s future task. Having become Britain’s third party in terms of votes cast, that is to replace the Labour Party as the second party, especially in the North. With the Labour Party now little more than the political wing of Len McCluskey’s Unite Union, this is a realistic aim. Its achievement is the great challenge that lies ahead for UKIP. The 15 per cent of the electorate who voted UKIP in Thirsk and Malton should therefore take pride both in the party’s past success and in its future hopes.

TOBY HORTON

Northallerton.