A LABOUR party boss has vowed to keep on campaigning despite a brick attack on his home.

John Hartshorne, chairman of the Bolton Labour Party has now been offered extra police protection.

Mr Hartshorne's wife, Elaine, was sitting in the living room of her Daubhill home on Friday night when a brick was hurled through the double glazed window, missing her by just two feet.

The room was showered with glass and Mrs Hartshorne, who is acting as agent for the Labour candidates contesting the local elections in the Rumworth ward, was left shaken.

Mr Hartshorne, who was at Rumworth Labour Club at the time of the incident, has no doubt their Blackledge Street terraced house was deliberately targeted by people who do not share their political views.

Police said they were investigating the incident. The house attack follows two abusive and racist phone calls received by Mrs Hartshorne at their home earlier in the week. Mr Hartshorne said: "I have never known an election campaign so bad. The people who do this are just evil. This is not a normal thing to do in society.

"I believe passionately in the Labour Party. I am very proud of it and this will not stop my campaign," he said. Mr and Mrs Hartshorne had spent Friday working at the Labour Party office on St Helen's Road and visiting homes to check people had received their postal ballot papers.

At 11pm he decided to go to Rumworth Labour Club for a drink while Mrs Hartshorne returned home by taxi.

Mr Hartshorne said: "She heard a bump on the front window and thought it was just children messing around.

"The next thing there is a brick coming though the window. She was terrified. The brick very nearly hit her."