UKIP parliamentary candidate Catherine Blaiklock was in Great Yarmouth today posing with her campaign cab - a rebranded London taxi - and mingling with branch members.

Meeting with supporters at the party's Regent Street base she described the town as being 'in an enormous mess' fuelled in part by global economics which had put smaller players out of business harming the town centre and contributing to a general decline.

And she rubbished glass half-full statements delivered by some of the other candidates about beautiful beaches and booming industries saying the town was 'dying on its feet' and that she would emigrate if she could.

In the next few weeks UKIP window posters would be dropping on the doormat of every household across the borough as a campaign fronted by the slogan 'Make Yarmouth Great Again' swung into action, she said.

Although winning the seat would be an uphill battle given the drubbing the party had had at county level losing every single seat she was confident people would come back to the party.

In the meantime she will be touring the borough in her campaign cab which is also a mobile office with 380,000 miles on the clock.

She said: 'Every problem we have had in this country has been self-made, from queues on the A47 to the housing crisis.

'When we build new houses they are not neutral they are detrimental to services like parking at the James Paget Hospital.

'The minimum wage has become the maximum wage and you cannot rise above it. I believe you can solve a lot of problems with carrot and stick economics.

'In Yarmouth there has been a big pile of sticks but not a lot of carrots.

'There are street-by-street battle lines, people won't come in at night, and who wants to go on holiday in this sort of mess?

'I have a very bleak view of the whole country. If I was younger I would emigrate.'

Peter Fitzgerald, branch chairman, said it was the first time there had been a campaign plan locally.

Today's event was a 'mid-session launch' he said to bring members together and brief them on how to engage with social media.

In the 2015 general election UKIP came 3rd polling 23.09pc of the vote.

The other candidates running in Great Yarmouth are James Joyce (Lib Dem), Brandon Lewis (Conservative), Mike Smith-Clare (Labour) Party and Harry Webb (Greens).