A Councillor says he was heckled, pushed and prodded by ‘UKIP thugs’ during a Christmas lights switch on in Moston.

Coun Pat Karney claims he and Lord Mayor Paul Murphy OBE were heckled and threatened throughout the gathering on Saturday night.

And Pat says he was even ‘pushed and prodded’ by one man during the festivities.

He claims that both he and the mayor were repeatedly told: “you’ve got no right to be here” and “you should be ashamed of yourself” during the event.

Pat says the comments were directed at him by three people that he understands to be UKIP members.

He said: “It was three people from UKIP. Me and the mayor were threatened. We had to refer them to the police.

“They were three former UKIP candidates."

“One of them was pushing and prodding me so I called the police over to speak to him. The other one was shouting vile abuse at the mayor.

“The police just had a word with them and that was as far as it went.

“They were heckling for most of the evening.

“They shouted ‘you should be ashamed of yourself’ and ‘you have got no right to be here’. We have both been councillors in this areas for 30 years.”

More than 200 people turned out to Moston to watch boxer Anthony Crolla switch on the Christmas lights on Saturday night.

Crolla, from New Moston, took to the stage in his home town to do the honours before families enjoyed Christmas stalls and carols.

Pat said the incident was ‘disgraceful’ and condemned the alleged agitators as ‘UKIP thugs’.

He said: “There was a crowd of about 200 which is the biggest and best it has ever been.

“There were kids and families there and they would have seen it happening.

“These UKIP thugs are such a bad advert for North Manchester.

“It was just disgraceful doing that in front of families and children.”

Responding to the complaint, Ukip spokeswoman said: "These allegations are utterly ridiculous, grow up.”