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UKIP are on course to win up to 16 seats in May’s General Election, according to an exclusive Mirror poll published tonight.

The anti-EU party could take seats from the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems, and have MPs from Rother Valley in South Yorkshire to St Austell and Newquay in Cornwall.

If the findings are accurate, it would exceed the expectations of UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who said on Sunday he expected to win around four seats on May 7.

The poll puts support for Ukip at 22.6%, which according to an election aggregator would give them 16 seats in Parliament.

Currently, the party has just two MPs, Douglas Carswell in Clacton and Mark Reckless in Rochester and Strood.

Both successfully defended their seats in by-elections after defecting from the Tories last year.

The two defectors would both keep their seats under the projections, and Mr Farage would win Thanet South.

Despite UKIP’s potential haul, the party may be denied the role of kingmakers in a coalition with the Tories.

The election is on such a knife edge the Conservatives may only win 282 seats, which together with UKIP’s 16 would still leave the party 28 seats shot of an overall majority.

The election aggregator did not include Northern Ireland MPs.

The seats UKIP could win are:

Waveney

Wyre Forest

Rother Valley

Plymouth Moor View

Walsall North

St Austell and Newquay

Dudley North

Camborne and Redruth

Cannock Chase

Great Grimsby

Great Yarmouth

Heywood and Middleton

Thanet South

Rochester and Strood

Thurrock

Clacton