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UKIP has shown off its campaign team for the Stoke by-election - in a photo taken 55 miles away.

The party tweeted a picture of a couple of dozen campaigners with placards and the caption: "Just some of the UKIP #PeoplesArmy in Stoke-on-Trent here to campaign for Paul Nuttall."

But eagle-eyed Twitter users noticed one little problem - it was taken outside the Macron Stadium in Bolton, where UKIP held its spring conference on Friday.

Party leader Mr Nuttall has already raised eyebrows and a police probe by claiming to live in Stoke on his candidacy form before he moved in.

He has faced other rows over credibility after admitting claims he lost close friends at Hillsborough were false.

When first contacted by the Mirror a party spokesman denied the picture was misleading - insisting everyone pictured drove down to Stoke afterwards.

The Ukip spokesman said: "Over 300 UKIP activists campaigned in Stoke Central on Saturday including a large contingent who travelled down from our Spring Conference in Bolton, some of whom gathered for a group picture before heading off to Stoke-on-Trent.

"It does seem now that Labour and their allies in the media are really grasping at straws when it comes to stories about UKIP."

But a second statement by Ukip later admitted it was a "cock-up".

The statement added: "You can rest assured that the guilty party has already been sent to Devil's Island where they will be force-fed gruel and made to chant 'I must check before tweeting' whilst hammering tin tacks into their fingertips."

John Gill, a national UKIP press officer, confessed on Twitter: "Argh, my bad, photo taken as the team departed from Bolton, not when they arrived in Stoke - the perils of social media."

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UKIP leader Mr Nuttall wept on stage on Friday after blaming a "smear campaign" for the "lie" that he wasn't at Hillsborough and saying: “I will not allow them to break me.”

But he then dodged reporters' questions and was bundled out a side door in a chaotic scrum.

Voters will go to the polls on Thursday in Stoke-on-Trent Central, where Mr Nuttall is bidding to overturn Labour's majority of more than 5,000.

During his own speech on Friday Mr Farage piled pressure on Mr Nuttall to win in Stoke, warning he'd had a “tough week”.

He added: “I don't think anybody for one moment can underplay just how important, just how fundamental that by-election is for the futures of both the Labour party and indeed of UKIP.”