Conservatives hold Sleaford and North Hykeham in by-election

Conservative Party candidate Caroline Johnson has won the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election.

Dr Johnson won 17,570 votes, beating UKIP's Victoria Ayling, who had 4,426.

In her acceptance speech, she said: "I look forward to strengthening the Government's majority in Parliament so Theresa May, our Prime Minister, can get on with the job of triggering Article 50, leaving the European Union and building a country and economy that works for everyone."

UKIP leader Paul Nuttall said it was "a great result" for his party, even though UKIP's share of the vote was 2.2 percentage points down on 2015.

He said: "If someone would have offered me second place at the beginning of the campaign, considering we were in the middle of a leadership election and the party resembled a bit of a shambles over the summer, I would have bitten their hand off."

Labour suffered a disappointing night - slipping from second place at the 2015 General Election to fourth, behind the Liberal Democrats.

Vernon Coaker, Labour MP for Gedling in Nottinghamshire, said: "It was a difficult seat. Let's remember this is a safe Tory seat, UKIP came here expecting to do much better than they did so it's a bad result for them.

"But clearly for us, this was not the result we might have hoped for."

Since it was formed in 1997, Sleaford and North Hykeham has only elected Tory MPs.

Tory Stephen Phillips had a majority of more than 24,000 votes in last year's General Election.

However, he quit in November citing "irreconcilable policy differences" with the Government's approach to Brexit.