Clacton will not have a UKIP candidate

THE UK Independence Party has said it will not field a General Election candidate against Tory Eurosceptic Douglas Carswell next month and pledged to actively campaign to get him elected.

Launching its manifesto, party leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch held up leaflets which advised UKIP voters to “hold their nose” and vote for another party if there was a better chance of the eurosceptic message infiltrating Westminster.

And Ukip also unveiled its new poster featuring the faces of Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg alongside the slogan “Sod The Lot’’.

Lord Pearson named the Conservative candidates UKIP would not run against as Philip Davies (Shipley), Douglas Carswell (Clacton), Janice Small (Batley and Spen), Alex Story (Wakefield), and Philip Hollobone (Kettering).

It will also not run against Labour’s David Drew in Stroud and independent Bob Spink in Castle Point.

Lord Pearson is talking to other local UKIP branches who are considering fielding a candidate in constituencies held by MPs who are opposed to Britain’s membership of the EU.

After securing the election of 13 MEPs in the last European elections, UKIP is hoping to make a breakthrough with the election of its first MP in a Westminster election. In particular, it is targeting the Buckingham constituency of Commons Speaker John Bercow, where the party’s former leader, Nigel Farage, is standing.

In its manifesto, UKIP promises an “end to uncontrolled mass immigration,” reaffirms a plan to ban Muslim face coverings such as the burkha, and concludes that the party is “sceptical’’ about man made global warming claims.

Labour’s candidate in Clacton Ivan Henderson said Mr Carswell was now in hoc to UKIP and was threatening the jobs of hundreds of constituents who depeneded on Europe for their employment.