COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Nigel Farage is to stand for parliament in the Kent constituency of South Thanet, local activists confirmed on Friday.



The leader of the UK Independence party, which currently has no MPs, will be on a list of three individuals who will run for the party’s nominations ahead of a hustings on August 26.

“It is the worst-kept secret in town,” said Rozanne Duncan, the local party secretary. “We now have two names on the list and one of them is Mr Farage. Whether he will get selected or not is another matter . . . although I’d be surprised if he doesn’t.”

Another party source also told the Financial Times that Mr Farage would be on the list. A Ukip spokeswoman refused to comment.

Despite having no MPs in Westminster – Mr Farage performed dismally in the 2010 general election – Ukip is on an electoral roll. It defeated Labour and the Conservatives in May’s European elections, also increasing its tally of council seats in local polls on the same day.

Ukip recently topped a poll in South Thanet, an area characterised by high unemployment, which will be one of the most closely watched battlegrounds of May’s general election.

Mr Farage previously contested South Thanet in 2005, only to come fourth. Four years ago he stood in the Buckingham constituency of John Bercow, speaker of the Commons, coming third behind an independent candidate.

Since then, however, Ukip has surged in popularity in some areas as its anti-EU, anti-immigration message strikes a chord with parts of the electorate. In most polls the party is ahead of the Liberal Democrats.

In May’s local elections, Ukip won seven out of eight local seats for the Kent county council, leaving the Tories without a single seat.

Current MP for Thanet South is Laura Sandys, a pro-European Conservative who is stepping down at the next election. She will be replaced as Tory candidate by Craig Mackinlay, a former Ukip member.

A recent poll by Lord Ashcroft, the Tory millionaire, suggested Ukip would come first in South Thanet and the Essex seat of Thurrock and second in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. All three constituencies are characterised by large numbers of older, white, working-class “left behind” voters, widely seen as Ukip’s core constituency.

Ukip enjoys spike in support after Farage targets Thanet

Ukip have taken a shock six-percentage-point leap in the polls following confirmation that Nigel Farage is intending to stand in a Tory seat in Kent. An Opinium/Observer poll has Farage's party on 21%. It appears that Ukip has taken support from both the Tories and Labour.

Ed Miliband's party is down three points, leaving it on 32%, and the Conservatives are down four points to 28%. The Liberal Democrats have enjoyed a small rise of three points to 10%.

Last week Farage confirmed that he will put his name forward to stand as Ukip's candidate in Thanet South. Farage stood in the constituency in the general election of 2005, when he came fourth, but his party has seen a huge surge in popularity in the intervening period.

Kent was among the southern and eastern English counties where Ukip performed particularly strongly in the recent European elections in which the party topped the polls. The anti-EU party has also won a string of local council seats in Kent.