BITTER Ukip boss Nigel Farage alleged yesterday that “bent” postal votes were to blame for his party’s latest by-election flop.

Ukip candidate John Bickley polled 6,487, over 10,000 adrift of Labour’s Jim McMahon.

Mr Farage cited “impeccable sources” for his suggestion that the “perverse result” was the result of ballot-rigging.

“I’ve been involved in 30 by-elections and no result has shocked me as much as this one,” he told the BBC.

“Some very odd things happened. There was a 15 per cent increase in the number of postal votes and stories of practices that shouldn’t really be happening in a modern democracy.

“Reports of people turning up at polling stations with bundles of postal votes being delivered on behalf of other people.”

The Ukip leader compared the situation to London borough Tower Hamlets, where mayor Lutfur Rahman was removed for “corrupt and illegal” vote-rigging and voter intimidation.

And Mr Farage claimed Labour was taking advantage of “some really quite big ethnic changes now in the way people are voting.

“In some of these seats where people don’t speak English and they sign up to postal votes, effectively the electoral process is now dead.”

But Labour deputy leader Tom Watson cast doubt on the “very serious allegation,” pointing out that Labour’s majority far exceeded the 7,406 postal votes cast.

He said: “I rather suspect sour grapes from Nigel Farage.

“He did think Ukip would win this. He did declare this a referendum on Jeremy Corbyn and Jeremy Corbyn has passed that referendum.

“He ran a very negative campaign that was deeply personalised and failed to address the issues and you can see the result.”

It was the eighth time in four years that Ukip have come second in a by-election — and the third time in two years for Mr Bickley.

Even Ukip deputy chair Suzanne Evans distanced herself from Mr Farage’s comments, saying the party “risk just sounding like bad losers.”

The Ukip leader vowed to make a formal complaint, but Oldham Council said they had not received any correspondence from him.

The council said its “robust system” for verifying postal votes, which includes a thorough check of signatures and date of birth, saw 295 ballots rejected.