Poll success of anti-EU party shakes Britain's Conservatives

Reuters
May 6, 2013, 11:23 am TWN

SHARE CLOSE


Blogger		Google+


Live Journal		Plurk


Stumble Upon

LONDON -- The anti-European Union UK Independence Party made big gains in local elections on Friday, siphoning support from British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives in a vote that underlined the threat it poses to his re-election chances in 2015.

Its success in council elections in mostly English rural areas that have traditionally been Conservative strongholds rattled Britain's three main parties, as voters deserted their ranks to switch allegiance to the populist group.

UKIP, which wants Britain to leave the European Union and an end to "open-door immigration", polled an average of 26 percent of the vote in council elections, according to early results, the best result for a fourth party since World War Two.

It also pushed Cameron's Conservatives into third place in an election for a national parliamentary seat in a traditional Labour stronghold in northern England, where Labour's majority was almost halved compared to three years ago.

"It sends a shockwave, I think, through the establishment," said Nigel Farage, the former commodity trader turned politician who leads UKIP.

Cameron once dismissed UKIP as "a bunch of fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists," and a senior Conservative minister called the party "a collection of clowns" before the vote.

"Send in the clowns," Farage quipped to Sky News. "We have been abused by everybody, attacked by the entire establishment who did their best to stop ordinary decent people from going out and voting UKIP and they have done in big, big numbers."

Though UKIP still has no seats in the 650-seat lower house of the British parliament, its surge in the polls will increase pressure on Cameron from nervous lawmakers in his own party to take a tougher stance on Europe and immigration.

The results suggest UKIP could split the centre-right vote at the next national election. That would make it harder for Cameron to defeat Labour, which leads his Conservatives by up to 10 percent in opinion polls as the economy shows tentative signs of recovering despite unpopular public spending cuts.

1|2|Next Page>>