The Conservative leader of Shepway District Council has referred to UKIP as "flotsam" in response to his party losing its seat in a Folkestone by-election yesterday.

Cllr David Monk referred to the rival party as "flotsam" - which means floating wreckage or rubbish - that had been "washed ashore" due to the result.

The Tories lost the seat to David Callahan who will become one of the two members for the Folkestone Harvey Central ward on the council.

Responding to the results Cllr Monk told KentOnline: "In the ebb and flow of the political tide an occasional piece of flotsam gets washed ashore."

Cllr Callahan, who is also a town councillor in Hawkinge, took the seat from the Conservatives with 27.9% of the vote, six points ahead of Tory candidate Rodica Wheeler with 21.7%.

He is the party's first district councillor in Shepway after taking the three Folkestone seats in Kent County Council elections last year.

Just 63 votes separated the top two candidates with a total of 1,030 ballots cast, a turnout of 22.73%.

The by-election was triggered after former Conservative councillor David Johnson resigned in July over a row about money he owed to a neighbour.

Former Mayor of Folkestone, Tom McNeice, representing the Liberal Democrats took third place with 19.2% of the vote marginally beating Labour candidate Wendy Mitchell - who represented the ward between 1997 and 2003 - who gained 19% and just two votes fewer.

The Green Party took fifth place with David Horton claiming 9.3% and Seth Cruse of the Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts took 2.8%.

Flotsam refers to the wreckage found floating after a ship has sunk or odds and ends or rubbish in a maritime context.