It was 10 years ago today ‘The Battle for Rochester and Strood’ reached its climax when residents went to the polls following Tory MP Mark Reckless’s defection to UKIP.

For six weeks, media and political figures from across the spectrum descended on the constituency.

PM David Cameron visited five times, cabinet member Michael Gove was spotted in Rochester High Street, Labour’s Ed Miliband and Yvette Cooper were knocking on doors - and Emily Thornberry made her infamous tweet.

For some, the by-election is seen as one of the first dominoes to fall which took Britain further down the path towards the EU referendum and all of its consequences.

But three people were truly in the eye of the storm: Mr Reckless, who had kicked the whole thing off; Kelly Tolhurst, the Conservatives’ replacement candidate to take him on; and Naushabah Khan, Labour’s challenger.

KentOnline spoke to them to find out what it was like to be caught up in one of the century’s most consequential by elections.

On September 27, 2016, Mark Reckless stepped out of the wings onto the stage of the UKIP party conference in Doncaster and announced he was leaving the party he had been elected with four years previous to join another.

The decision, he said looking back, had not come easily, coming in response to “broken promises” by David Cameron over immigration, but he had no doubt he would call a by-election.

He said: “I thought about it for quite some time in advance and previous times I decided not to.

“But the 2014 local elections saw the increase in the vote for UKIP and it was coming from the Labour Party, and it was at that point that I began seriously to think that to stand for UKIP could make a real difference in terms of bringing on a referendum.

“The likelihood of getting that referendum and ensuring Cameron actually delivered what he promised changed and I thought about it and talked with my colleague Douglas Carswell over the summer and then we made the decision to go and we did.”

Reckless had not given forewarning to his Conservative colleagues, a move he knew would not win him friends locally - but which he said was essential to prevent the party moving against him before the announcement.

He continued: “Without the element of surprise there would simply have been a character assassination of me by the Conservatives.

“As soon as I came off that stage I made some calls to local Conservatives out of respect. I felt I needed to speak to them directly as quickly as I could.”

It didn’t totally placate his former colleagues as the local Conservative group, following the by-election, attempted to sue Mr Reckless over £3,000 of campaign leaflets featuring him which he had approved just weeks before defecting, however, this was later thrown out by a judge.

But Mr Reckless still remembers the energy in the moment as he walked out at the UKIP conference.

He continued: “Stepping out onto the stage was really extraordinary and it overwhelmed the senses. I found it quite difficult to process in real time, the degree of enthusiasm and excitement.

“It was genuine, live politics and people responding in the moment.”

For the Labour Party it was a shock, they had to jump into campaign mode a year earlier than they had expected, but they had already selected their candidate, Naushabah Khan.

She said: “I was actually at my friend’s wedding and, during the ceremony, my phone was just going crazy with all these people calling me.

“I had no idea what was going on and that's when someone texted me saying ‘Mark Reckless has just walked on stage at UKIP conference’.

“So, it definitely came as a shock and I didn’t really know what to expect.”

Meanwhile the Tories not only had to fight a contest they weren’t expecting, they needed to find a candidate.

Inside of 30 days, Rochester West councillor Kelly Tolhurst was selected.

She said she had never had any ambition for parliament - but was all of a sudden at the front of a very public campaign no-one had been expecting.

She said: “Mark had a lot of support locally from the local association, from local people, in order to be the candidate.

“He had fought a number of elections and he had an immense amount of goodwill from local members to support him, so I think there was a lot of people who were personally very hurt.

“I had never even had any aspiration to be a member of parliament and when a couple of people involved in politics suggested I should put my name forward I said they wouldn’t really want me because I don’t have a traditional background of an MP.

“But they said they wanted someone local and so I threw my hat in, not thinking it would come to anything.”

Despite essentially being the selection of a local MP by the people of Rochester and Strood, the by-election became much more.

It was called a test of Mr Cameron’s coalition government, an assessment of Ed Miliband’s Labour opposition, and a taking of the temperature of the UK’s thoughts on immigration and the EU.

But all three of the candidates say the campaign for an MP who solve local issues and represent the area got lost in the media frenzy.

Mr Reckless said: “I tried to make the campaign as local as possible.

“The line against me was I was bringing this circus into town and it was all about sort of national or international issues and it wasn’t about the local area.

“But I don’t think that worked because as a local MP I put in the groundwork over the years beforehand.

“The number of doors I knocked on, the number of leaflets I delivered, and the responsiveness to local issues - unless you have that base, people will be much less willing to come with you on the sort of issues I went to UKIP on.”

Ms Khan said: “The way the media wanted to play it was focused on the migration debate and that’s what UKIP wanted and what Mark had done by walking from the Conservatives to UKIP.

“They put a laser-focus on the issue, but there were so many other things that came up on the doorstep.

“One of the biggest issues people talked about, and it’s interesting because it hasn’t massively changed, is the NHS.”

Instead, Rochester and Strood became besieged by outside forces who wanted to use the election to further their own ends.

These outside influences, the three say, changed the environment of Rochester and Strood, creating an atmosphere which locals didn’t recognise.

Ms Tolhurst said: “I’ve said a few times it was done to us.

“It was forced upon the people in this area because we didn’t choose to have a by-election, Mark Reckless made that choice, and it threw us into the spotlight.

“There was no Britain First movement in the Medway Towns at that time, but all of a sudden they were storming my office.

“It was referred to by the BBC as the battle for Rochester and Strood and for local people it did feel a bit like that because the towns changed.”

Britain First stood a candidate, Jayda Franzen, and staged a march through Rochester High Street, but were met with anti-fascist counter-protestors.

Royal Mail refused to deliver their election leaflets on the grounds they were threatening and abusive.

Ms Khan says a lot of the campaign felt very surreal, particularly when Ed Miliband, then-Labour leader, launched the party’s migration policy from Nucleus Arts Cafe.

She said: “As a first-time candidate, introducing the leader of the Labour Party, with the world’s press in the room, that did feel quite surreal.

“It was also made all the stranger because of a big pink bear which was fundraising for a breast cancer charity, who had turned up to speak to Ed Miliband and the press guys were trying to negotiate with them.

She also remembers the televised hustings, where the three main candidates really got into the “nuts and bolts” of what each of them was standing for, feeling the immense pressure of so many eyes watching.

She said: “Personally, it was important because I was the only one who came from a migrant background.

“So, with all that attention, there was a lot of conversation around immigration and the EU and I did feel as though I had a role to talk about the other side of that, because quite often it's talked about very critically.

“I felt like the need to talk about the positive impact of immigration as well, and I didn’t want it to become a really easy target for every party.”

While so many people were watching, the Labour campaign hit a road bump which became a defining aspect of the by-election - something it’s still remembered for, even if some would prefer it forgotten.

On the day of voting, shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry tweeted an image of a white van outside a house with several England flags with the comment “Image from #Rochester” which was widely interpreted to be snobbish.

The home belonged to Dan Ware, a father of four, who had no idea his home had become the centre of a political controversy.

Ms Khan says she’s unsure of how impactful the tweet was in terms of the by-election since it was the day of, but she says it contributed to a perception of Labour being out of touch with the general public.

She said: “It certainly got the press coverage, but I think it acted as a wake up call for the Labour Party.

“Emily Thornberry apologised for it profusely, but that didn’t come across and it sort of played into this sentiment already being felt that the Labour Party were out of touch.”

For six weeks national and international media focused on Rochester and Strood - hundreds of journalists were chasing campaigners and the public around - and dozens of high-profile politicians descended to throw their weight behind a candidate.

All three of the main candidates said the pressure was unlike anything they’d experienced before or since.

Ms Tolhurst said: “I didn’t realise at the time because my local association protected and looked after me really well - I was actually recovering from an operation at the time and they made sure I got to sleep and made sure I got places on time.

“But when I was considering standing again in 2015, I looked back at the by-election and I nearly didn’t stand as a candidate because of the vile personal attacks that I got.

“It wasn’t about politics, it was about the way I looked, my hair, saying because I have a Thames Estuary accent, as do most people who live or come from the Medway Towns, that meant I was thick - some of it was really vile.”

Mr Reckless said: “There was a lot of pressure and I had my wife and children to think of as well.

“Just the scale of it, when I came into the count with my wife before the results, the amount of cameras and the number of journalists and the sheer degree of interest nationally, and internationally was humbling.

“The chief executive of the council at the time told me - in a politically neutral way - in terms of promoting Medway, how delighted he was, because it was a huge amount of free publicity.”

On November 20, the polls opened and, finally, a decision would be made.

Ms Tolhurst remembers her frustration upon arriving at the count, one of the key contenders, and being told she would have to wait to enter her own count because Nigel Farage had just arrived and was speaking to the press.

The result had, they all said, been expected based upon their conversations out on the doorsteps, but even so it was a disappointment to Ms Tolhurst and Ms Khan.

Ms Tolhurst said: “You have to want to win, and you have to expect to win to keep fighting but we knew it was going to be hard.

“A by-election, typically, it’s an opportunity for people to register unhappiness and annoyance with the current government.

“We were obviously disappointed when we lost, but we were relatively happy because some predictions said the loss would be massive - but it was a lot smaller than the media had been predicting.”

Ms Khan said: “If I’m honest, I think our data was already showing we weren’t going to win.

“It’s obviously tough to go through an experience like that, a lot of attention on you, a lot of pressure, and then you haven't got to where you’d have liked to.

“But I think I’d managed my expectations quite well, so it didn’t massively come as a surprise.

“I think part of me just thought, ‘oh, wow, it’s all over now’. It had been this huge whirlwind and then it just stopped and the media left, and then I went back to my normal life.”

The final result was 16,867 votes for Mr Reckless and UKIP, 13,947 for Ms Tolhurst and the Conservatives, and 6,713 for Ms Khan and Labour.

He said: “The first time I came back to Rochester, it was slightly difficult with some of the media and Nigel came to visit, and the Conservatives knew where we were going to be and were well set out with people to put their view across.

“But after that, I went canvassing out in Grain and then Hoo and the reception I got on the doorstep then was really striking.

“From then on, I was reasonably confident that we would succeed, although never certain and certainly never complacent.”

So he was returned to parliament but now one of two UKIP MPs, the other being his friend Douglas Carswell who also defected and won a by-election in Clacton.

The news cameras packed up, the journalists from national and international press went away, and the politicians from across the country stopped visiting.

Rochester and Strood was able to go back to normal, albeit shaken by the disturbance it had endured.

However, now Mr Reckless had gone from being a troublemaker within the government - who had led rebellions causing the first defeat of the coalition in 2012 - to sitting on the opposition benches with only one compatriot.

But it wasn’t to last. Just six months later David Cameron called a general election and when voters went to the polls, Mr Carswell survived, but Mr Reckless did not.

Ms Tolhurst fought again and this time came out on top, gaining 23,142 votes to Mr Reckless’s 16,009.

Ms Khan also stood again but placed third for a second time, garnering 10,396 votes.

Following his defeat, Mr Reckless became UKIP’s director of policy development and in 2016 was elected to the Senedd in south Wales.

He left UKIP the following year, standing with the Conservatives, though not officially rejoining the party, but then left and joined the Brexit Party in 2019.

The year after he joined the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, but did not succeed in being re-elected the following year.

He now is working behind the scenes with Reform UK to build the party in Wales and believes it’s in a strong position to make gains there.

“I made the right decision. I think I would do it again. I don’t have regrets.”

Meanwhile, back in Medway, Ms Tolhurst went up to Westminster following the 2015 general election and stayed there for just under 10 years.

She grew her majority each election, reaching a high of more than 17,000 in 2019, but was ultimately unseated herself in 2024 in the Labour landslide.

She has remained in the area and says she’s considering whether or not to run again whenever the next election may be.

Ms Khan was subsequently elected to Medway Council in 2015 in Gillingham and, when Labour took the council in the May 2023 local elections, joined the cabinet with the portfolio for housing and property.

In 2024 she stood in the Gillingham and Rainham seat at the general election and unseated incumbent Tory Rehman Chishti.

So what is the legacy of the Rochester and Strood by-election?

The candidates are divided on whether or not it brought an EU referendum closer, or if a vote on our membership was inevitable.

Ms Tolhurst said: “I think David Cameron and the Conservative Party knew some progress needed to be made about the UK's relationship with Europe with or without those by-elections.

“People were unhappy and wanted to see a change - I think the by-election just sort of pushed it on a bit more.”

Ms Khan said: “I do believe that the referendum itself might not have happened, or wouldn’t have played out as it did, if we hadn’t had that growing momentum we saw through those by-elections.

“It had an impact on the narrative of this country and I think it acted as a catalyst towards that referendum.”

Mr Reckless said: “I think two things of the most important things in influencing Brexit followed the by-election.

“First, Cameron really firmed up his commitment to having that referendum, saying he wouldn’t be prime minister unless he could deliver it.

“Second, he was then making speeches on immigration, I think, two or three weeks after and he said he would cap immigration from the EU - and made a promise he couldn’t keep.

“His failure to deliver on that led to his renegotiation being seen as a failure and I think that was important to the Brexit vote.”

And how do they look back on it? Is it a distant memory? Or a very present part of their lives?

Ms Khan: “Let’s just put it this way, I'm never going to forget it. It is etched in my mind as a kind of a turning point in lots of ways, for the country and for me as well.

“Obviously, I lost, which is never nice, and there was a lot of negativity encompassing it in terms of what we were talking about, what it meant to the country.

“But I actually don’t look back on it in a negative way at all.

“It was incredibly intense. I don’t think I’d fully processed it until after the election was over.”

Ms Tolhurst: “It was just a phenomenal six weeks and despite the negatives I still view it positively.

“There was so much that went on, my only regret is I didn’t keep a diary of what happened.

“It comes up all the time because people always remember it to me, MPs and ministers will recount their stories to me of when they came to visit in the by-election.

“And local people as well, everyone has a story. Dig a Dinosaur on Rochester High Street, they always tell me about when Jacob Rees-Mogg came in and bought his son a couple of fossils from the shop.”

Mr Reckless: “The world’s a bit different now than it was and, as a parent, I measure time largely with reference to the age of my children.

“I had a baby and a little boy at the Rochester by-election, and I’ve now got three strapping young kids growing up quickly.

“I still feel like I did what I wanted to do and I got the results I wanted.

“I think if you're elected under one party and you change, it’s right to ask your voters, your employers essentially, for their permission.

“But also I think we made the political weather by doing so, the fact my constituents endorsed my choice - that’s incredibly powerful.

“I made the right decision. I think I would do it again. I don’t have regrets.”