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In the 2001 general election, in Cornwall, the UK Independence Party polled an average 2.6% of the vote and lost every deposit. In 2005 UKIP polled an average 5% of the vote and lost its deposit in only one constituency, Falmouth & Camborne. In 2010 the average UKIP vote share fell to 4.9% and the party lost its deposit in North Cornwall, St Austell & Newquay and Truro & Falmouth.

Last year's elections for the European Parliament, of course, returned two UKIP MEPS for the South West and it would be premature to write the party off completely. But there is now likely to be a fair bit of blood-spilling and internal feuding, not least directed at party leader Lord Pearson, whose most notable contribution to the recent general election campaign was to tell UKIP supporters in Somerset to vote Conservative.