Less than 48 hours after its leader conceded defeat, Ukip supporters have taken to Twitter to vent their frustration at their failure to capture the South Thanet seat - by declaring it was all a set-up.

Angry kippers have used the hashtag #Thanetrigged to accuse the establishment of all sorts of electoral shenanigans to get Nigel Farage out - citing the unusually long time for the votes to be counted and their success in the local elections as evidence.

Farage lost by 2,812 votes to the Conservative candidate Craig Macinklay despite the party gaining a 13 per cent vote share across the country.

But despite this failure Ukip gained overall control of Thanet council in the local election results on Friday - its first in the country.

They have jumped on a tweet sent by Spectator columnist Isabel Hardman tweeted at 12:30am on election night that Farage may have lost, six hours before the votes were counted, as “proof” the result was a foregone conclusion.

The conspiracy comes despite claims from the man himself that he had lost the poll.

Speaking to Kent Online on Friday he said: "I knew the result yesterday [Thursday]. I could see the wards in Broadstairs were 80% turnouts and people queuing to vote. I spoke to people and they were saying 'look Nigel, we love you but we can't have Nicola Sturgeon running the country.’”

But who knows? Maybe they were just Conservative hired shills disguised as Thanet voters.