THE big purple bus stopped off in the North-East at the weekend as a once-tagged ‘fringe’ political party continues to try to move into the mainstream.

Regional members of UKIP, the UK Independence Party, joined its national leader Nigel Farage on a battle bus in the region ahead of the forthcoming local elections.

Buoyed by the party’s second-place finish in the recent Eastleigh by-election, UKIP hopes to increase its standing in forthcoming polls, at both national and local level.

Mr Farage, who continues to lobby against the European Union from within, as an MEP, said he remains “the turkey who voted for Christmas”.

He also spoke strongly on education issues and his plan to dismantle what he considers wasteful levels of middle-management bureaucracy in the National Health Service.

His weekend whistle-stop tour of the North-East began in Durham city centre, on Saturday (April 6), but also took in Chester-le-Street, Beamish, Stanley, Consett, Prudhoe and Hexham.

There was also time for a spot of sea angling with a county council election candidate off the coast at Blyth, Northumberland, today (Sunday April 7).

As the high-profile figurehead made his way down the coast for the next leg of the bus tour, in North Yorkshire tomorrow, the party’s North-East chairman Richard Elvin said UKIP is aiming to field its strongest ever turn out in forthcoming elections in the region.

He conceded, however, that the party’s hot-spots are as challengers to the Conservatives in the traditional Tory shires and other strongholds.

“We’re hoping to have 100 per cent coverage of candidates in many areas in the Midlands and the South, but here in the North-East we’re a little way behind.

“We don’t quite have the infrastructure yet, but we’re targeting a figure of 40 per cent for the elections in Northumberland and County Durham, and we’ll be contesting the South Shields by-election very strongly.

“It certainly reflects the increasing profile of the party.”

Mr Farage and his purple bus, will be at Scarborough fishermen’s cafe, at 11.30am tomorrow, then up to the town’s Spa, from noon to 2pm, before moving across North Yorkshire to gather with party members at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate, from 4pm to 10pm.