UKIP heads for landslide win, says poll

London, Aug 31: Britain’s anti- EU UK Independence Party ( UKIP) will win its first directly elected parliamentary seat after the defection of a lawmaker from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative party last week, an opinion poll on Sunday showed.

Last week Mr Douglas Carswell switched allegiance to UKIP, saying he no longer believed Mr Cameron wanted major reforms to Britain’s ties with the European Union. Mr Carswell, 43, triggered a fresh election in his southern England constituency by resigning, saying he wanted to be reelected under the UKIP banner to validate his switch. A poll of 700 residents in the constituency forecast a landslide victory for UKIP and Mr Carswell over the Conservatives. The poll by Survation, published in the Mail on Sunday, put UKIP on 64 per cent, 44 percentage points ahead of the Conservatives. UKIP’s popularity has surged since 2010 on the back of its campaign for an immediate withdrawal from the EU and an end to what it calls “open door” immigration. UKIP has continued to siphon support away from Mr Cameron’s party, threatening of re- election next May, despite the Conservatives promising to negotiate reforms and hold a referendum on Britain’s EU membership if they win the national election. Sunday’s poll represents a huge swing towards UKIP from the Conservatives.