Latest polling data has shown that UKIP leader Nigel Farage is nine points ahead in the constituency of Thanet South with less than two weeks to go until polling day.

The numbers put Farage on 39 per cent, nine points clear of his nearest rival, Conservative Craig Mackinlay and way ahead of Labour’s Will Scobie who is on 26 per cent.

Speaking to Breitbart London Farage said he was “excited and confident, but certainly not complacent” and will keep working hard in the constituency.

And even thought the South East was where the Liberal Democrats retained their only MEP last May, their candidate in this constituency is looking at losing his deposit.

The voting intention of constituents was collected by Survation on Wednesday 22nd April and is the latest available.

“In the last 72 hours we’ve become very excited about how we are doing in some of our target seats. We’re nicking a bit of vote from everybody. We’ve clearly hurt Labour more than we’ve hurt anybody else,” he told the Telegraph.

“And this whole narrative here – Ukip’s fading away, it’s not doing any good, it ain’t going to take any seats; actually we take the very opposite view.

“The thing that really strikes me about these figures is the number of non-voters, the people who did not engage in 2010, who have said they are going to vote Ukip. I think that is really exciting.”

The poll showed that 18 per cent of those who responded had actually met Mr Farage in the past month, compared with eight per cent who had met Mr Scobie, a councillor, and seven per cent who met Mr Mackinlay.

And twice as many people said they had spoken to a Ukip canvasser in the past month compared with teams from the Tories or Labour.

Farage said: “I get criticism every day – they say ‘Nigel’s not here enough, is he?’ I don’t actually do everything in the full glare of cameras, there is something called hard work, knocking on doors and meeting people and I’ve done loads of it.”

He also said he was pleased that nearly a quarter of the people who will be putting a cross next to his name on the ballot paper on May 7 didn’t bother to vote at all in 2010. “Some have not voted in 20 years, some have never voted in their entire lives,” he said.

Headline voting intention:

Nigel Farage, UKIP – 39%

Craig Mackinlay, Conservative – 30%

Will Scobie, Labour – 26%

Russ Timpson, Liberal Democrat – 2%

Another Party or Candidate – 3%

We also asked constituents, in order to assess the state of the “battleground”:

