Lord Sutch sees off second party

The Monster Raving Loony Party candidate, Screaming Lord Sutch, may have claimed another scalp after the announcement yesterday by Alan Sked that he was retiring as the leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party.

Mr Sked, an academic who founded the party in 1993, said work pressure had forced a return to his "ivory tower" at the London School of Economics.

It follows his party's poor showing in the Uxbridge by-election in which the UK Independence Party was beaten by Lord Sutch. David Owen would up the SDP after his party was humiliated in a by-election by being beaten by a Monster Raving Loony candidate.

Colin Brown