Have the Tories given up on beating Ukip in two key seats?

Extraordinary ‘leak’ from Conservative party HQ shows number of seats they’re not targeting

Ukip leader Nigel Farage
(Image credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Have the Conservatives given up on winning back Rochester and Strood, the Kent seat won in November’s by-election by the Tory defector to Ukip, Mark Reckless? It appears so.

All the talk after the by-election victory was that Reckless would never hang on to the seat at the general election. But yesterday it appeared on a list – inadvertently leaked in a “cock-up” at Conservative party headquarters - of 101 seats now considered “non-target”.

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Jack Bremer is a London-based reporter, attached to The Week.co.uk. He has reported regularly from the United States and France.