UKIP leader Paul Nuttall has been forced to move house over fears for his personal safety ahead of a by-election, his party has said.

The party chairman, Paul Oakden, said "concerning incidents" had prompted the decision, and the returning officer for the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election in which Mr Nuttall is standing has been informed.

Mr Oakden said: "Since the address of the house Paul Nuttall has been staying at during the Stoke-on-Trent Central campaign was published on social media there have been a series of concerning incidents at or around it.

"The most serious of these was two unknown men attempting to gain access to the house through a rear entrance.

Nuttall: I am English and I am proud of it

"There has also been hate mail posted through the letterbox and other intrusive behaviour including trespassing in the private garden of the premises and attempts to take pictures through windows and the letterbox."


Last month, Mr Nuttall sparked controversy after claiming waterboarding - a form of torture - would be "a price worth paying" if it saved lives from terrorism.

UKIP is hoping to take the Stoke-on-Trent Central seat from Labour.

Mr Nuttall has pledged to fight for quality education and better wages, and said he would scrap the so-called bedroom tax and make sure local people had priority on housing lists if elected.

Nuttall 'probably okay' with waterboarding

He has also called for tougher sentences for criminals, a stronger military, and a separate English Parliament.

The seat has been held by Labour since 1950 and UKIP came second in the 2015 General Election by more than 4,000 votes.

More than two thirds of people in Stoke-on-Trent voted to leave the EU in the referendum last June.

The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Tristram Hunt, who is to become director at London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

It is being held on 23 February, the same day as the Copeland by-election sparked by the resignation of Labour's Jamie Reed.

Labour holds a much smaller majority in the Copeland seat and beat the Conservatives by just 2,564 votes in 2015.