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Mayoral election will ‘lay ghost once and for all that London is not our territory’ claims UKIP candidate

UKIP’s Peter Whittle is already looking forward to being elected to the London Assembly, and has planned a few days off before campaigning against the EU.

Mayoral candidate Mr Whittle, 53, hopes that he and two other UKIP candidates will be elected to Assembly after voters go the polls on Thursday.

The UKIP culture spokesman is also hoping to lead the out campaign in London for the upcoming EU referendum, and stressed the effect of immigration on London, a topic he claims no other candidate will talk about.

Mr Whittle said: “I’ve talked about the fact that London has seen unprecedented levels of migration and that to say that this has no effect whatsoever or is nothing to do with the housing crisis, for example, is simply absurd.”

The latest YouGov survey found Mr Whittle had 7% of support in first preference votes.

Mr Whittle believes that UKIP is attracting huge numbers of ex-Labour voters, and that success on Thursday will be another big psychological step forward for the party.

He said: “It will be an important breakthrough for my party and it will lay the ghost once and for all that some how London is not UKIP territory.”

In his manifesto Mr Whittle is the only candidate to appear with their party leader.

Mr Whittle said that Nigel Farage is a positive asset to his campaign and that the other candidates have their own reasons not to feature their leaders.

He said: “Sadiq does everything he can to distant himself from his leader, Cameron has been around a bit, no one knows who the Lib Dem one is, and probably Caroline is a bit hazy on who her leader is, and then the Green’s, Natalie Bennett, she was such a disaster.”

The author of five books fears that London is become more monetised, and believes the lack of social housing is part of the solution.

“Things are not just about money. They are also about quality of life and community, and so therefore I think social housing at its best is a great way of making communities stable and it frees people up,” Mr Whittle said.

“Essentially we have got to remember that London is a place with a soul and a spirit and it’s not just a huge market place.”

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