Is Nigel Farage the right man to make Ukip a real political force?

Ukip can split the Tories - but failure to win over Labour voters in by-election exposes weak spots

Don Brind

THERE is no doubt after yesterday's by-election in Manchester that Nigel Farage's Ukip poses a real threat to the Conservatives - but what became of the challenge to Labour that was being promised last month?

Then, Farage was hailing Ukip's candidate in Wythenshawe, John Bickley, as a local boy “from a staunch Labour background" while The Spectator claimed the seat was "a perfect location" for Ukip "to underline its claim that it can steal discontented voters from Labour just as easily as it does from the Tories".

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is a former BBC lobby correspondent and Labour press officer who is watching the polls for The Week in the run-up to the 2015 election.