Farage plans to end Labour's "one-party state" in North-East

The former banker said he believed UKIP could replace Labour as the main party in the region by 2020, as he gave a speech to a few dozen party supporters at Hartlepool's Grand Hotel.

Politics was changing, he said adding: "Scotland was Labour's one-party state for many years and we have seen how the SNP have managed to destroy that.

"The view in London is that the North-East is fine, it is secure, it is a one-party state, where you can parachute in people who have never even visited the region on holiday before, so you end up with a Miliband in South Shields, and - most familiar of all - a Mandelson in Hartlepool.

"The London-led metropolitan elite Labour party have betrayed people in this country and are no longer connected to them in any way.

"We are the challengers to Labour. We are the only people that can beat Labour. The only truly wasted vote in the North-East is a Conservative one.

"We hope to be the biggest party in the North-East by 2020."

The polls had greatly underestimated how many supporters UKIP had, he said, and in areas like Hartlepool there was a "very, very significant percentage of the Labour vote that is by the day coming to UKIP".

The party was also scooping up disengaged voters among its supporters and he said, with their help, UKIP's target seats were winnable.

He criticised Labour for being the "party of mass immigration" and opening up the borders of Britain to "former communist countries".

Mr Farage was also forced to deny once again that his party was racist, after shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said a "virus of racism" ran through UKIP.

He said: "This constant attempt to try to paint UKIP to be a racist party is wholly unjustifiable and grossly unfair, and it has led people who agree with UKIP to feel shy about talking about it.

"Your media obsession with attempting to paint UKIP as a racist party is something I'm getting really rather bored of."