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Now read what David Cameron and Ed Miliband had to say about the Teesside Manifesto

UKIP’s Nigel Farage became the latest party leader to back Gazette readers’ Teesside Manifesto - saying it “read like a UKIP pledge card”.

During a visit to the region today, Mr Farage said his party is still targeting Labour seats in the North-east.

He spoke to supporters at Hartlepool’s Grand Hotel to back local candidates in the upcoming General Election - saying he wanted UKIP to smash Labour’s ‘One Party State’ in the North-east.

And joining Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband, Mr Farage backed Gazette readers’ demands of politicians for change on Teesside.

Mr Farage was given the six elections demands: support to bring big business to Teesside; greater investment in major routes; fair treatment over council cuts; bringing empty homes back into use; keep the private sector out of the NHS; and cut the benefits bill by helping people off welfare into work that pays.

He said: “I will back local people standing up for what they want. These demands read like a UKIP pledge card.”

On bringing big business to Teesside, Mr Farage said: “We should think a bit more about small and medium businesses in this country, not simply support big business.”

'Loopy green agenda'

Reminded that Teesside has a long history of heavy industry, Mr Farage continued: “Well what you would need to do is get rid of Ed Miliband’s Climate Change Act.”

Asked about improving infrastructure on the region’s roads, including the A66 and A19, he said: “I obviously don’t know a great deal about local roads. But we need to get away from this loopy Green agenda, we all need cars to get around.

“But I can guarantee that your traffic is nothing compared to what we have to deal with down south.”

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Should cuts to local council funding in the north be fairer? “I think that the money spent by local councils needs looking at. You have grave diggers on part time contracts, but then four people working in town halls on more than £100,000 a year. £100,000 is a lot of money in somewhere like Surrey, but it is a lot more in northern towns.”

'Get people off benefits'

Mr Farage said that bringing empty homes back into use rang true with UKIP’s policy on housing - and that the party wanted to lead a “brown-field revolution”.

He said: “There are also lots of empty Government property that can be brought back into use. We would like to build 200,000 new homes a year and we want them to be affordable. You can get builders wanting to build luxury homes with four bedrooms, but that’s not what’s needed.”

Gazette readers want to keep the NHS out of the hands of private companies.

Despite being quoted as saying he would support an insurance based system of healthcare in the past, Mr Farage said: “It was the Labour Party who started bringing private companies into the NHS, and all of us watched it uncritically. But we do not have cleaner hospitals, and it is not working. We believe that strong, public health service is best for Britain.”

Asked if he supported cutting the benefits bill by helping people into work that pays, Mr Farage said: “Simple. No tax on minimum wage. Get people off benefits.”