UKIP Poll Reveals 12 'Most Wanted' Seats

Internal UKIP polling seen by Sky News has revealed the 12 seats the party is planning to target heavily for the 2015 General Election.

Most of the seats are held by the Conservatives and they tend to be situated across the southern half of England.

However, two - Grimsby, and Boston and Skegness - are further north.

The best chance of victory is likely to be in South Thanet, Kent, where party leader Nigel Farage is standing.

The full list of likely targets include: North Thanet, Sittingborne and Shelly, Aylesbury, East Worthing and Shoreham, Great Yarmouth, Thurrock, South Thanet, Eastleigh, Portsmouth South, South Thanet, Boston and Skegness, Grimsby.

Mr Farage described his party's success in the European elections in May, when it topped the polls, as a "political earthquake".

He said he wanted to build on the success in 2015 - and today's revelations suggest how he plans to do that.

Sources have told Sky News there is a wider hit list of about 25 seats, but these 12 are likely to be most heavily targeted.

UKIP thinks a realistic result will be to win between three and five seats.

Mr Farage has argued the party cannot only cut into the Conservatives' base but also win working-class votes from Labour. Yet the list seen by Sky News is made up largely of Tory-held seats.

However, both South Thanet, where the Conservatives have a majority of 7,600, and the ultra-marginal Thurrock, where the Tory majority is just 92, are key Labour targets.

The Labour candidate in Thurrock - Polly Billington, a special adviser to Ed Miliband - will hope the UKIP charge inflicts more damage on the Conservatives than on her.

The one Labour-held seat, Grimsby, is likely to have been chosen because the party will lose the incumbency effect. The local MP, Austin Mitchell, has served there since 1977 but is standing down this time around.

Portsmouth South is held by Mike Hancock - an independent MP after being kicked out of the Lib Dems. He is also standing down.

Eastleigh, which is also held by the Lib Dems, will be a target because UKIP came second in a by-election there triggered by the resignation of former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne.