Ukip plans a win in Stoke-on-Trent Central

Though I don't have any special affection for conservative vote-splitters like Ukip, this is interesting. "Ukip targets trophy seats" (The Times, 9th Dec 2016, $ paywall) because they can probably win the seat with someone like Nigel Farage...

The party will look to oust “trophy” targets such as Tristram Hunt, who is viewed by Ukip insiders as a figurehead of the metropolitan liberal elite ... the party is ready to scrap the “scattergun” approach [to focus] on a far smaller number of seats ... Ukip came second last year in his [Hunt's] staunchly Eurosceptic seat, Stoke-on-Trent Central, where 65 per cent voted Leave in June.

The city as a whole voted for Brexit by 69.4%, with Newcastle-under-Lyme at 63%...

Incidentally, there's a debunking of Hunt's claim — made a few days ago at Stoke Minster — that here in the Midlands we built the Industrial Revolution with the profits of the slave trade.