26/05/2014 Look North (Yorkshire)

Thank you. That is all from us for this evening. It is

Welcome to Look North. First tonight, the UKIP leader, Nigel

Farage, has said he will be targeting seats in Yorkshire in next

year's general election. It follows his party's triumph in the European

elections both here and across the rest of the UK. UKIP topped the poll

in the Yorkshire and Humber region and took three of the region's six

seats. Labour won two and the Conservatives one. UKIP took 31% of

the vote. It was a bad night for the Liberal Democrats, who came fifth.

Some party members are now calling for Nick Clegg to stand down. We

will be speaking to our political editor Len Tingle in a moment but,

first, here he is with all the details.

UK Independence Party, UKIP, 403,630. This was the point where it

was clear that UKIP had made political history in Yorkshire,

three new MEPs on their weight to the European Parliament. With UKIP

topping the poll they were allocated three of Yorkshire and the Humber's

six seats, with Labour getting two and the Conservatives getting one.

The votes were counted council by counsel and UKIP came top of the

poll in some surprising places, including York and Castor and

Rotherham, all in the past the heartland of Labour. It shows there

is a deep mistrust of the European Parliament and the European Union

and they want some eyes and ears over there, some common, straight

talking people. If you look at the overall vote we have done much

better than we have in many European elections since 1999 so we have

doubled our representation, so, yes, I think it is a satisfactory

result. The Conservatives amassed enough votes for veteran MP Timothy

Kirkhope to keep his seat at they were distant third. The Lib Dems

came far`off the running. In my opinion we would probably be bit ``

be higher if Nick Clegg was not our leader. Given what I hear from

people on the doorstep, I think that is fair. Of the three UKIP winners,

they say the first thing they are going to do is have a drink with

Nigel. It has been a mentis 48 hours of

reporting for you. Where has this surge UKIP from? These are not new

voters, once you have never voted before. The turnout is exactly the

same as it was five years ago so clearly UKIP took votes from Labour,

probably more from the Conservatives and the Lib Dems and the BNP vote

dissolved. The key is not so much grabbing votes this time around but

keeping them for the more important vote, the general election next

year. We went Rotherham where there was a surge for UKIP and we asked

them people if they would vote for them next year?

We want them to close the borders, that is it, and they've promised

that they would do that. That is it. And would you vote for them in a

general election? Yes, for definite, no more Conservative. No more.

I don't want to be in Europe. Costs us too much money, .. I don't want

to be in Europe. And next year when it's the general election when we're

choosing a prime minister what will you do? UKIP. Cut immigration.

There's too many. I'm not racist but there's too many.

Depending on what the other issues are, I might vote for them again. I

just thought that UKIP might be a better one to vote for for us this

time. Just going to see what happens this

year first, see what things come up about what's happening before I make

a decision. Do that later in the year. So maybe UKIP next year? Yeah,

maybe. It's a maybe. Where do Nick Clegg and his party go

from here? You saw the Lib Dem candidate from Harrogate, one of the

key seats you would hope that back road they would have hoped to take

in. The candidate was basically saying she would have a better

chance of winning if Nick Clegg was not the leader and others are saying

the same kind of thing. At the moment that is not grabbing a huge

head of steam through the party but clearly if you are getting those

kind of whispers it is not good. It is only a year to go before the

general election, will they switch or stick? We did that exercise of

talking to people on the streets of Rotherham after the local election

and we got exactly the reverse answers. It is up to UKIP now, they

have those elected MEPs and councillors, they have to prove they

can do the job and do it properly. A number of properties in Rotherham

were evacuated this morning after a fire at a derelict house. Fire

officers were called to Rawmarsh Hill in Parkgate just after 2:30am.

Part of the building was demolished because of fears it would collapse.

Rawmarsh Hill was closed for several hours.

More than 5000 people have signed a petition calling for improved road

safety following the death of a teenager in a hit`and`run crash in

Sheffield. 14`year`old Jasmyn Chan died when she was struck by a

vehicle at Normanton Hill more than two weeks ago. A 32`year`old man

arrested in connection with her death has been released on bail.

Campaigners say they have enough signatures to force a council debate

on road safety. One of the tallest maypoles in

England was erected at a festival in the village of Barwick near Leeds

today. The celebrations included local primary school children

dancing around the 90`foot`tall pole, a street market, brass band

and procession. The event, which is held every three years, concluded

with a volunteer climbing the pole. Rather them than me!

Now, Rotherham woke up this morning to having a side in football's

Championship. The Millers won the League One play`off final yesterday

in the most dramatic way possible ` a penalty shoot out at Wembley. That

means back`to`back promotions for the Millers, as Ian Bucknell

reports. Somewhere in that hard are the two

men who intend to take Rotherham to the top, Tommy Stewart and Steve

Evans. Yesterday they shared their greatest achievement so far, with

players and fans on the turf. We are going to do it today! Morale was

high going into the game. Most Rotherham supporters sensed victory

to make up for the dark times of the recent past, two administrations and

a temporary move out of Rotherham. It is the third time I have been to

Wembley to see Rotherham and hopefully we will see them in the

Channel next year. It was Leyton Orient who took the lead with a

wonder strike by mode `` Moses Odubajo. Five minutes later it got

worse for them when Moses Odubajo set up his team`mate Cox. But Mark

Greville scored once and what followed was magnificent. He may

never score a better goal than the second. It went to penalties.

I was a bit disappointed I did not get closer to the first one, I went

to the wrong direction, but I did my job in the end. This is an

unbelievable experience. The adventure goes on in the

Championship. In football we can always dream. The Millers are going

up and Tony and Steve are already plotting the next ascent.

Well, the Millers will be having a victory parade through Rotherham

tomorrow evening and we will have full coverage on Look North. I can't

wait for that, it looks great. On to cricket, and Yorkshire are

taking on the old enemy, Lancashire, in the County Championship.

Lancashire were 325 all out and in reply Yorkshire have made a solid

start ` they are 29 without loss at the close of play.

It looks blooming awful for the rest of the week, a lot of rain, drying

up through Friday and the weekend. Tomorrow we start with unsettled

weather, spells of rain spreading from the south`east. We have a fair

few showers, they will fizzle through the evening. A lot of cloud

over night. The rain sets in from the southeastern later on, heavy

spells towards dawn. Temperatures falling back to around ten or 11

degrees. Tomorrow a cool and cloudy day. It will not be raining all day

long but we will continue to see the app rakes of rain feeding in from

the south`east and some very heavy spells at times. Temperatures of 13

or 14 tomorrow. Another miserable day on Wednesday, the rain light and

patchy on Thursday. Good evening. If I were to conduct a

straw poll about the weather events today, I suspect we would get a

split decision. There were significant differences around, we

have sunshine and some warmth, but also this cloud and rain coming up

through the Channel into the north of England. On top of that, some

showers in the north-west, some of them thundery from Northern Ireland

and Scotland, so a real eclectic mix. This will drift away over the

next few hours, we will keep the cloud overnight, and we will see

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