AS the rest of Wiltshire goes to the polls in today’s local elections, the United Kingdom Independence Party is starting its biggest ever campaign to take seats in Swindon Council’s next elections in 2014.

Swindon Council does not have an election this year, owing to the all-out elections in 2012, but one third of the seats (19) will be up for grabs in 2014 and UKIP standing candidates in all wards for the first time.

The Swindon branch, which is drafting its 2014 manifesto, has never won a seat in Swindon but has attracted strong support, with police and crime commissioner candidate John Short coming in third place behind Labour and the Conservatives in November 2012.

Mr Short, the newly elected chairman of the Swindon branch, which has about 90 active members, said the party hoped to steal votes from all the other parties in 2014, with a manifesto centred on improving local services rather than just the EU.

But he said he hoped UKIP’s success would be bolstered at the 2014 local elections because they coincide with the European Parliament elections and the relaxation of EU restrictions on immigration.

Mr Short, who was a Conservative councillor for Highworth on Swindon Council until he quit the party in 2012, said: “I think the way things are going, we could end up with about five or six seats.

“We hope to get votes across the board – I think there will be a lot of Conservative people voting for UKIP, but also a lot of Labour people I have talked to around Parks and Covingham are very much in favour of what UKIP is doing.”

Mr Short said the branch, which has members on Covingham and Haydon Wick Parish Councils, would publish its manifesto soon and it would then start an intense campaign, with members holding public meetings, handing out publicity material in the town centre and leafleting door-to-door.

He said: “It will be delivering the services back to local people and putting more money into the development of the youth, putting money into making sure schemes are there to employ people locally, which has happened in the past and there are no reasons why it cannot again.”

Nationally, UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said the party will boost its share of the vote more than anybody can yet quite believe. Tory peer Lord Tebbit said he thought many Tory voters might switch to UKIP in protest at David Cameron’s government, but Foreign Secretary William Hague has urged Tory supporters not to “waste” their vote on UKIP.