Paul Nuttall: Vote UKIP 'to get your community back'

Paul Nuttall, centre, with UKIP councillors and supporters

UK Independence Party leader Paul Nuttall has said that if people want their "country back... their community back" they should go out and vote UKIP.

Mr Nuttall, speaking to UKIP councillors and supporters in Boston, said the party was the only one which never told its councillors how to vote.

This meant they always put "their community before party", he said.

UKIP is defending more than 140 council seats won in 2013 in England, in 4 May's local elections.

The party does not have any councillors in Scotland and is defending just two council seats in Wales.

At the event in Boston, Mr Nuttall said UKIP's councillors had protected the green belt, worked to bring down excess pay for council officials and worked "to get more bobbies on the beat".

He said that the party believed in "direct democracy" and would "always trust the people over the politicians" so would act if enough people supported local petitions.

On housing, the party says that controlling migration will help curb the increasing demand for housing, while new homes would be built on brownfield sites rather than greenfield sites.

This year's local elections will be UKIP's first since the UK voted to leave the European Union - which has always been the party's key aim - and the first since Mr Nuttall became Nigel Farage's permanent successor.

Mr Nuttall has said these will be the "most difficult local elections" the party will face before the next general election in 2020.

The council made a breakthrough in local government last time these council seats were contested, going from just 10 local councillors to more than 140.