Party wants to kickstart process so Heywood and Middleton poll can be held on day of the Clacton vote, officials say

Labour strategists are understood to be planning to stage an early byelection in a vacant Greater Manchester seat in an attempt to minimise the potential of an embarrassing threat from the UK Independence party.

Officials said the party wants to kickstart the election of a new MP in the seat of Heywood and Middleton before parliament rises on Thursday. The seat became vacant on Sunday after backbencher Jim Dobbin died aged 73. He had a majority of 6,000.

The move will be seen as evidence that Ukip are making ground in northern working class communities. Ukip's leader, Nigel Farage, has pledged to fight hard in the seat where the BNP previously won more than 3,000 votes.

Labour's preferred date for the byelection is 9 October – the same day as the Clacton byelection sparked by the resignation of the MP Douglas Carswell, who switched from the Tories to Ukip.

Party officials believe if both byelections are held on the same day, it would split Ukip's resources and stop a Ukip "bounce" in the polls.

If Labour fail to trigger a byelection by Thursday, the party may have to wait until parliament returns in October, which would mean that the election could not be held until November. Officials fear that Ukip could then experience a surge following an expected victory in Clacton.

The plan to trigger a byelection so soon after an MP's death is unusual and parties normally wait until after the funeral.

It is understood that a senior Labour figure will seek the consent of Dobbin's family before any attempt to begin the process of setting a timetable for a byelection.

Heywood and Middleton is seen as particularly volatile to issues around race and immigration. Nearby Rochdale became the centre of media attention in 2012 after a sex-trafficking gang of men of mainly Pakistani origin were found to have preyed on at least 47 girls, who were all white. Many of the victims and their families come from Heywood.

Lee Rigby, the fusilier murdered in May 2013 by two Muslim converts near Woolwich barracks in south-east London, came from Middleton, where members of his family still live.

Farage has already made clear that he is willing to campaign on the issues of child abuse and immigration.

On Sunday, he told activists in Somerset that the child sexual abuse scandal in Rotherham – where perpetrators of Pakistani origin or descent were allegedly not pursued because of fears that authorities would be perceived as racist or Islamophobic – was an example of multiculturalism leading to disaster.

A Labour spokesman declined to comment.