Each of the three main candidates is concentrating on a local campaign for that very reason. They want to prove they are different to the clueless Londoncentric politicians shouting at each other in PMQs. Labour claims to have between 50 and 60 people out every week, knocking on around 2,000 doors. It has delivered 170,000 leaflets so far, all using local volunteers. “I’ve lived in Thanet my whole life, born in the local hospital," Scobie said. "Tories are using their money to try and buy the election, Farage is using the media, billboards, and publicity to try and make him look as big as possible. And the actual people who are doing the door-to-door canvassing and talking about Thanet is Labour.”

The Tory campaign aims to knock on every single door and has teams of between six and 20 activists going out regularly. But Mackinlay admitted his camp has occasionally hired agency workers to deliver leaflets. “We have used some in some pockets,” he said. “We’ve got so much to do and it’s fairly time-critical. But it’s the rarity rather than the norm.” UKIP also faces claims from Labour that it has used agencies to deliver leaflets in the constituency, although Bruni-Lowe told BuzzFeed News this was untrue. The party has, however, admitted wrongly delivering more than 100 leaflets – addressed “Dear constituent” – to the neighbouring Dover and Deal seat last month. UKIP said “a bit of over-enthusiasm took them [activists] over the border”.

Scobie, whose campaign recently got a £10,000 boost from ex-Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott, even claimed a Farage win could damage local businesses: “If we’re known for being the area of UKIP, I think that will stop people coming. I think that will deter people from investing and I think it will be damaging for the area, I really do.” But UKIP’s Bruni-Lowe insisted that a high-profile representative for South Thanet would actually help bring in much-needed cash. “There are issues people want to be solved, a lack of investment,” he said. “Who is the best opportunity we have to get more money and get more investment? If you look at it based on that, you’d have to assume they want Nigel.”

Scratch the surface and tensions between the candidates are simmering. Sources in both UKIP and Labour camps told of how Mackinlay tried to abandon the South Thanet campaign in September to stand as the Tory candidate in the by-election for Rochester and Strood, an area he knows far better. That prized position became available when Mark Reckless made a shock defection from the Tories, but local Conservative activists didn’t want Mackinlay chopping and changing constituencies. He denied to BuzzFeed News that Rochester was the seat he really wanted.

But his distaste for Reckless – once a good friend who even went to his wedding – was clear. “If I hadn’t got this one [South Thanet], I would imagine I might have had a chance [in Rochester], but I’m pretty sure Mark Reckless wouldn’t have jumped if I’d still been in the candidates pool,” Mackinlay said. “Because we were in the final together for the adoption of that seat for him in 2010. He wouldn’t have gone. There is annoyance because I think what he did was absolutely dishonourable. And how he did it was dishonourable. It was planned to be as nasty as possible, frankly. I don’t mind people jumping, but you do it with honour.”

He also didn’t hold back about Scobie, who at 25 is 23 years younger than him and half the age of Farage. Labour aides say Scobie is the “clean” choice and should appeal to people who are sick of politics as usual. But Mackinlay said: “Sadly for poor old Will, some existing Labour voters say, ‘He’s a nice lad but he’s not really done anything, he’s never actually had a job.’” Meanwhile, Labour has just started renting a third constituency office right on the waterfront. The smart glass-fronted space was partly paid for using the donation from Oakeshott, who is backing centre-left candidates across the country.

UKIP and the Tories dismiss Labour at their peril. Both teams are keenly aware of the danger of a split in the right-of-centre vote, which could lead to Labour coming through the middle. Mackinlay points to the Eastleigh by-election in 2013, where Conservatives and UKIP scooped 53% of the vote between them but the Lib Dems won the seat with 32%. But UKIP is betting that by the time of the election, their man will become irresistible at the ballot box. Farage’s future depends on convincing local people he can transform their lives – and not just the fortunes of his party.