THE leader of Derby's UKIP group says his party could win between 20 and 30 seats in the 2015 General Election, following his party winning its first MP.
But councillor Alan Graves, who is running for MP in South Derbyshire, added that predicting next year's result was like throwing a deck of cards in the air and guessing where they would land.
Amber Valley Conservative Nigel Mills said: "Most people would be surprised if they [UKIP] got more than one MP - or even one."
Douglas Carswell held his seat in Clacton after a by-election called after he defected from the Conservatives to UKIP.
Labour's Dame Margaret Beckett said she was struck by academic reasearch that had shown Clacton, Essex, was already where UKIP would be most likely to win a seat.
Dame Margaret said she wondered if Mr Carswell had switched to UKIP because he feared he might lose his seat if he stood again as a Conservative.
She said it was difficult to tell what the result meant for the General Election as "Douglas Carswell had been the MP there for sometime, with a substantial majority, and is obviously well thought of in the area".
In the night's other by-election, Labour held on to Heywood and Middleton but UKIP slashed its majority to 617.
Mr Graves said his party was "very pleased" with the results and that the Heywood and Middleton vote showed it was attracting different types of voters.
He said: "I think we could win 20 to 30 seats in the General Election.
"I would have said that before Douglas was elected, but it makes it more of a reality."
Mr Graves said his party was working hard for votes in the constituencies of Derby North, South Derbyshire, Amber Valley, and Chesterfield.
He said: "It's going to be tight but, if you look at the European elections results in some of those areas UKIP came first and that gives a sound base to work from."
UKIP topped the European polls in South Derbyshire and Amber Valley but it was Labour in Derby and Chesterfield.
Mr Mills said the result in Clacton had suprised no-one and that, if people had assumed the focus would shift from UKIP after the European elections, they were wrong.
But he said that, by the time the General Election comes around, people would realise it was a "straight choice between two parties and two Prime Ministers".
The Heywood and Middleton result saw UKIP get 11,016 votes in second, with the Liberal Democrats on 1,457 in fourth.
Dame Margaret said: "What stands out a mile for me is that UKIP is now the party of protest when it used to be the Lib Dems."
She said that, ahead of the General Election, UKIP's policies could now come under greater scrutiny from the media, instead of "getting a free ride like the Lib Dems used to".
Councillor Lucy Care, who is running for the Liberal Democrats in Derby North, said the fact that people feel the need to protest shows that none of the mainstream parties are "really engaging with the electorate".
Mrs Care said she believed that the media could play a part in changing that.
She said: "Douglas Carswell is in the position of being a constituency MP and I get the feeling he is quite a good one.
"What worries me is the way in which people are voting for a single person within the party, particularly leaders.
"People need to thinking of voting for a party, individual candidates in their area."
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