Post date: Mar 01, 2014 12:45:9 AM
The leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) warns that his anti-EU party could cause a major upset in British politics by scoring a victory over established rivals at European elections later this year.
TORQUAY, UNITED KINGDOM (FEBRUARY 28, 2014) (ITN) - The leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Nigel Farage, warned on Friday (February 28) that his anti-EU party could cause a major upset in British politics by scoring a victory over established rivals at European elections later this year.
Such a result would act as a springboard for UKIP's national election campaign next year, helping the party win a "good number" of seats in the British parliament, Farage said.UKIP has drawn voters away from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party by tapping Britons' scepticism over the benefits of European Unionmembership.
UKIP, running a campaign to end "open-door immigration" and to withdraw from the EU, has nine elected representative in the European Parliament but has never won a seat in the British parliament.
Speaking to a conference of party activists ahead of European elections on May 22, Farage said UKIP could cause the "biggest shock" in modern British political history by winning more EU seats than any of Britain's three main parties.
"I genuinely believe that if we get this right, if we get this campaign right, on May 22nd we can cause the biggest political shock that has been seen in modern British political history. We can cause an earthquake on May 22nd by winning the European elections," Farage said.
An opinion poll last month on voting intentions at the European elections showedFarage's party finishing in second place behind Britain's opposition Labour partybut ahead of the Conservatives.
Farage reiterated the need for Britain to make its own trade deals and not rely on the European Union.
"What about trade? When the World Trade Organisation meets to discuss trade rules, the British delegates have to leave the room because we are members of a customs union from which we are forbidden from making our own trade relationships with any other part of the world. Europe is actually declining as a percentage of the global trade with every single year. It's the rest of the world that's growing - it's Singapore, it's India, it's Brazil, it's China. And we would have much greater global influence if we were able to negotiate our own trade deals ourselves and this idea that we are big enough - Iceland , 320,000 people - Iceland last year signed a trade deal with China. If Iceland can do it, then we with 64 million people most certainly can do it," Farage said.
Support for UKIP in opinion polls for national elections has risen from around 3 percent in 2010 to about 13 percent in the latest surveys.
That puts UKIP in third place behind Labour who are on 38 percent and the ruling Conservatives with 33 percent but ahead of the coalition-government's junior partner, the Liberal Democrats with 10 percent.