LONDON (Reuters) – The leader of the anti-EU party that poses one of the biggest threats to British Prime Minister David Cameron’s hopes of a second term said on Friday that he will unleash a political earthquake with a victory in next year’s European election.
Nigel Farage, head of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), said its surging popularity will overturn decades of dominance by Britain’s main three parties, the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
In a challenge to Cameron, Farage promised to turn the 2014 European Parliament vote into a symbolic referendum on Britain’s immigration policy and its membership of the 28-nation bloc.
Cameron has already promised to hold an “in/out referendum ” before the end of 2017 in a move widely seen as an attempt to stem the loss of support to UKIP and to placate Conservative eurosceptics. UKIP wants to leave the EU immediately.
“My ambition, my conviction is that we can come first and cause an earthquake,” Farage said to huge applause in a speech at his party’s annual conference. “We are changing the face of British politics.”
Once derided by Cameron as a collection of “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”, UKIP has increased its support since taking just three percent of the vote at the last national election and failing to secure a single seat in parliament.
(Reporting by Peter Griffiths- Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
0 comments
Share
