UKIP In The North East.

by Robert Merrick, Parliamentary Correspondent

UKIP is gathering a “significant vote” in former coalfield communities, a leaked Labour strategy document has admitted.

And it says the right-wing party is winning over “disenchanted” Labour supporters who believe their party is more interested in attracting “better-educated, middle-class” voters.

The twin admissions come in a party document sent to Labour MPs believed to be most at risk from a UKIP surge, with advice on how to fight back on the doorstep.

It highlights swathes of the North-East where UKIP is winning at least ten per cent of the vote, although this is less than across most of Yorkshire and the North-West.

Last month, after UKIP’s stunning success in the Rochester and Strood by-election, North-East Labour MPs insisted their seats are not at serious risk and denied they were developing new strategies.

Researchers have suggested some constituencies – Hartlepool, Bishop Auckland, South Shields and Middlesbrough – may be vulnerable to a UKIP surge.

And, at last May’s European elections, the fast-rising party topped the vote in Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Stockton and Redcar and Cleveland.

Now the 33-page document, entitled ‘Campaigning Against UKIP’, has stressed how its popularity is on the rise from its roots in the rural South-West and East of England.