Nigel Farage has proclaimed that he will 'smash apart' Labour's 'one-party state' in the North at the election.

The Ukip leader said that his party is now the 'serious challenger' to Labour in northern seats.

He accused the party of making claims Ukip is racist because it is 'running scared'.‎

Mr Farage called on Conservative supporters to vote tactically to help Ukip beat Labour in its target seats.

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Up for it: The Ukip leader said that his party is now the 'serious challenger' to Labour in northern seats

He said that traditional Labour voters also want to send a message to Ed Miliband, 'you don't represent us anymore'.

In an article for MailOnline, he wrote: 'The truth is, Labour are running scared, and it's not the Conservative Party making great inroads into their vote. It's us. It's UKIP.

'You only have to look at last year's Heywood and Middleton by-election for proof of it.

'We came within 620 votes of taking a "safe" Labour seat, and actually, Mr Miliband would have had to resign as leader of his party if we had done it. The problem in that case was that the Conservative Party split the vote.'

Mr Farage accused Labour of 'sneering' at people who raised issues about immigration and claimed Ukip has now 'emerged as the party of the working man'.

He added: 'Across the North of England, UKIP are now the serious challengers to Labour.'

Mr Farage accused Labour's shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna of making 'tired and old claims' after he said at the weekend that Ukip is infected with the 'virus of racism'.

He wrote: 'While most people pay no heed when they hear these claims nowadays, it is interesting to think about why Labour chiefs are attacking UKIP, when they really should be focusing on Mr Cameron's Conservatives by this point in the campaign.'

Mr Farage will on Tuesday campaign in Hartlepool, where he thinks the party has its best chance of winning in the North East at the election.

The seat has been put on Ukip's list of top ten targets. Other seats outside of the south of England on the list are Great Grimsby, Boston & Skegness, Dudley North and Heywood & Middleton.

Proud: Ukip's strategists believe the party could come second in at least 100 seats in the North

However, the party suffered a blow on Monday when a poll by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft showed the party was 17 points behind Labour in Great Grimsby.

Ukip's strategists believe the party could come second in at least 100 seats in the North.

In 2010 the party failed to achieve even a single second place.

The Hartlepool constituency has been held by Labour since it was formed in 1974.

In 2010, Ukip took just seven per cent of the vote and Labour's Iain Wright retained the seat with a 5,509 majority.

He replaced Peter Mandelson as the MP in a by-election in 2004 after the Labour grandee stood down to become a European Commissioner.

Mr Farage's hopes for electoral victory in Hartlepool come after the town elected a man dressed as a monkey as its mayor in 2002.

Stuart Drummond stood as 'H'Angus the Monkey', Hartlepool United FC's mascot, as a publicity stunt with the slogan, 'free bananas for schoolchildren'.

He was re-elected in 2005 and 2009 before voters in the town backed a referendum to scrap the paid post in 2012.

Hartlepool's residents are famously said to have hanged a monkey during the Napoleonic wars because they thought it was a French spy.

Nigel Farage: ‎'Labour are running scared of Ukip'

‎Have you noticed how in the past few days Labour has started to attack me and Ukip, just as the polls suggest that more and more Labour voters are going to be voting for us on May 7th?

Polls have shown a sharply rising proportion of Ukip supporters drawn from people who voted Labour in 2010. On April 17th it was seven per cent. This weekend it jumped to 19 percent.

Labour's Chuka Umunna has again repeated a tired old claim about Ukip and race.

Worried: Mr Farage said Labour are 'running scared' of his United Kingdom Independence Party

While most people pay no heed when they hear these claims nowadays, it is interesting to think about why Labour chiefs are attacking Ukip, when they really should be focusing on Mr Cameron's Conservatives by this point in the campaign.

The truth is, Labour are running scared, and it's not the Conservative Party making great inroads into their vote. It's us. It's Ukip.

You only have to look at last year's Heywood and Middleton by-election for proof of it.

We came within 620 votes of taking a 'safe' Labour seat, and actually, Mr Miliband would have had to resign as leader of his party if we had done it.

The problem in that case was that the Conservative Party split the vote, and we hadn't yet proclaimed our Australian-style points system plan for immigration, or our plans to take those on the minimum wage out of income tax completely.

Sneering: Mr Farage said Chuka Umunna continued to 'sneer' at his party on immigration and attacked a 'whopping majority of Britons'

And far from the party of old, gin-soaked half colonels that some would like Ukip to be, we have emerged as the party of the working man and woman of this country, with a health policy welcomed by the Alzheimer's Society, a housing policy endorsed by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and an immigration policy that 77 per cent of the British public agree with.

But Mr Umunna and the London Labourites continue to sneer at people over the issues they want answers on.

When they attack me, they're really attacking a whopping majority of Britons who know that on defence, our NHS, jobs, and the economy, Labour has proved itself to be grossly negligent.

On immigration, Labour was wilfully deceitful, as several senior party sources now admit. They wanted to change our communities for political gain.

They simply do not understand the impact that mass migration has had on people's lives.

In doing what they did, they betrayed their core voters – keeping wages down, making it harder to get a GP appointment, and creating a shortage of school places.

People rely on government to help them with some of their most basic needs, and Labour has not just failed to provide them, it has actually reduced their availability.

Look at the mess Ed Miliband's party is in as a result of all this.

Across the North of England, Ukip are now the serious challengers to Labour. In Scotland, Labour's heading for a wipeout.

People are mustering up the courage to depart from their 'traditional' way of voting.

They want to send Labour a message: 'You don't represent us anymore'. That's because in areas like Rotherham, Hartlepool, and Stockton, Labour has ceased trying to represent the values, beliefs and opinions of ordinary folk.

They're more concerned with the chattering classes of Westminster and Islington. And let's face it, until a few years ago there wasn't much choice in the North.

The Conservative Party's entire campaign is based on the idea that he economy is enriching people's lives, but very few people in the North of England are feeling that.

And their claims expose the fact that they don't know how much people are still struggling. But now there's a challenger in the North. It's Ukip.

So expect, over the next few days, a panicked campaign by Ed Miliband and chums during which they'll call us names, hurl abuse, and try and scare voters away from us. Don't believe them.