UKIP is planning to field a candidate in each of the three Bolton constituencies next May bolstered by its second place in the recent Heywood by-election.

The party says it will provide a “serious challenge” to Labour in the North West and will also field candidates in every Bolton ward in the local elections.

Deputy leader and North West MEP Paul Nuttall said about the Heywood and Midleton result: “I’m very happy that we took Labour to the wire.

“We knew something was happening out there on the street, and it was a lot closer that what the pollsters were telling us.

“We are now the only opposition for the northern town and cities. The Tories are dying, the Lib Dems are finished and there’s only one opposition.”

Mr Nuttall said the “people’s army” was ready to challenge the “one party state” in the North West.

He denied that the party was simply for a “protest vote”, adding: “When people vote for UKIP they know what they are voting for.

“They are voting for a party that is strong on immigration, wants out of the European Union, believes in deterrents in the justice system and that the UK should not sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights.

“The Bolton branch of UKIP is growing every day, and is in a position to challenge the one party state in the north of England.”

The latest polling in Bolton West — one of the most marginal seats in the country — showed UKIP at 22 per cent, compared with Labour at 40 per cent and the Conservatives at 30 per cent.

MP David Crausby, who will be defending the Bolton North East seat he first won for Labour in 1997, said he understands some people want to make a protest vote, but he urged them to carefully scrutinise what UKIP stood for.

He added: “They are a right-wing party that are more Tory than the Tories. It is disingenuous for them to claim otherwise.

“UKIP are trying to be all things to all men and they would find things very differently if they were ever given a chance to take any sort of power.

“It will be either a Labour or a Conservative Prime Minister after the next General Election but I think UKIP will have an effect on which it will be.”