NIGEL FARAGE
UKIP ARMY WILL SHAKE UP THE ESTABLISHMENT
UKIP is now the main opposition party in the Tory South and Labour North, Nigel Farage said yesterday.
Launching the party’s general election campaign, the bullish Ukip leader made a passionate appeal to voters on both the Left and Right as he predicted a stunning result on May 7.
Mr Farage said his “People’s Army” was targeting voters left behind by the main Westminster parties.
He promised that he would address both the cost of living and the cost of government.
Mr Farage also set out key Ukip policies, including taking workers on the minimum wage out of income tax and scrapping tuition fees for science and engineering students.
Appearing at the Movie-Starr cinema in Canvey Island, Essex, he said the three main parties did not “believe in Britain” and predicted Ukip would win “signifi cantly more” than two or three seats.
Nasty
The only fi rm “red line” commitment he made during the speech was that the party would not compromise on its call for an EU referendum.
Mr Farage added: “We will not enter a coalition, no matter how tempting ministerial cars may be. We will only do a deal with anyone on the condition that there is an in- out referendum on the EU.”
He said Ukip was the only party standing up for the little man and that it would not engage in “dirty politics” as its opponents “turned nasty”.
The Ukip leader added: “We have crossed the class barrier in British politics. That is a remarkable achievement for Ukip and we pick up support from across every social spectrum.
“And we are also beginning now to dig quite deep into some of the ethnic community vote in this country as well, because people that have come to this country legally, that have made this country their home, that have integrated within our society, they want the Ukip agenda as much as anybody else.
“And what you will see during this election campaign are lots of Ukip candidates from the ethnic minorities. It is something the commentariat in Westminster probably won’t understand but I think all of us in this room do.”
The politician thanked Jamie Huntman, Ukip’s parliamentary candidate for Castle Point, which includes Canvey Island, for an introduction which claimed Mr Farage “refreshed the parts that other politicians cannot reach”.
The party leader – who revealed he had lost weight by giving up alcohol after Christmas – joked that it was “very nice of him, after a dry January”. He added: “But the point is this: Ukip, as a political party, our candidates and our activists, are reaching voters that the other parties can’t reach because we are bringing them back into the political system.
“We are re- engaging people who have not voted for anybody for the past 20 years and we should be very proud, I think, as a party that we are doing that and we are really connecting.”
Mr Farage said Ukip was “a truly national political party”, dismissing the Conservatives as a “regional party for the South of England” and Labour as a similar party for the North.
He said his party was “the challenger in virtually every seat from Birmingham up to Hadrian’s Wall”.
“We are going to give Labour in the North of England a real run for their money,” he added.
UKIP has had a quiet time in recent weeks but Nigel Farage was back on form in Canvey Island yesterday as he launched the party’s general election campaign by threatening to shake up the establishment. The main Westminster parties are no doubt feeling shaken up enough already thanks to the rise of Mr Farage’s insurgent party.
Winning the European elections and gaining two MPs who defected from the Conservatives last year has put Ukip’s key issues firmly on the political agenda. Without them it is likely the Westminster parties would not be having the serious conversations about the EU and rampant immigration that they have been.
Nigel Farage’s down- to- earth charm has also shone a spotlight on what many perceive as out- of- touch political elites who may never have had a job outside politics and who claim to speak on behalf of the British people.
Ukip has spoken up about the things that really matter to people and that the main parties have shied away from.
We can but hope the party continues in this vein and keeps Westminster on its toes.