UKIP "Dismissive" of chances in Heywood and Middleton but confident of Dudley North

UKIP think they can take Dudley North, say sources

A UKIP source has said that the party is "Dismissive" of its chances in key Labour-UKIP marginal seat Heywood and Middleton.

The seat was nearly won by UKIP in the 2014 by-election, with the UKIP candidate John Bickley losing by just a few hundred votes. Heywood and Middleton has traditionally been a traditional Labour stronghold, but last year the seat nearly abandoned its Labour roots to plump for Nigel Farage and his insurgent party.

However, UKIP sources who spoke to journalist Mike Smithson now claim that they have "No chance" of winning in the seat. They believe that the seat has swung heavily back toward its Labour voting roots, and is therefore unlikely to go to UKIP at the general election. They are, however, much more confident of taking another Labour held seat, Dudley North. The seat was won in 2010 by Ian Austin by just a 2% margin, and opinion polls say that UKIP is surging in the seat and that Austin is in trouble.

The campaign in Dudley North is also said to be going well for UKIP. The party is almost certain to benefit from the collapse of the Tory vote in the seat, after Tory candidate Afzal Amin was forced to quit as the Tory candidate, after admitting to plotting to stage a fake EDL demonstration outside a mosque. This could leave Labour MP Ian Austin in trouble, facing a majority right-wing vote in a seat that he only narrowly won last time.