UKIP’S Ian Robinson said he came close to quitting the election race after his wife was threatened by two bullies.

Beverly Robinson, who was recently declared free from cancer, challenged the two men after spotting them vandalising party signs outside the pair’s home in Cliffe Lane, Great Harwood.

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She was abused by the pair before she fled to get her husband from a nearby pub.

Businessman Mr Robinson, who lost his independent seat in Great Harwood last year by seven votes, said: “I was thinking about withdrawing because she was so upset by these bullies.”

Mr Robinson, 60, said signs across the borough had been vandalised 15 times in the past 12 months, costing him hundreds of pounds.

He said he was at The Dog & Otter, close to his home in Cliffe Lane, last Sunday when his wife arrived upset.

He said: “Outside my house there were two lads who were being brash and they tried to rip down my signs.

“When my wife challenged them, they made comments which were not nice. She was frightened and thought they might have had a go at her or the house so she came to get me. She got their vehicle registration. Police are looking into it.”

A sign on land off Whalley Road in Great Harwood was damaged on Wednesday — and a sign in Blackburn Old Road is damaged on a daily basis, Mr Robinson said.

A police spokesman said: “At around 8pm on Sunday, March 22, unknown offenders approached Ukip posters in a field opposite a candidate’s house and started to cover them up with Labour posters, and made off when challenged. If anybody has any information, they can call police on 101 quoting log number 952 of March 23.”

Council leader Miles Parkinson (Labour) said: “I am led to believe the individual who is doing this has a strong dislike for Mr Robinson and has come across Labour posters and used them for his own ulterior motive.

“Clearly these individuals have done something off their own back. It is nothing to do with the Labour Party.

“We do not condone any actions of individuals who use the Labour Party in this way.”

Mr Robinson will stand as a candidate in the Overton ward in May, in what he said will be his final election campaign.