Come home to the Tories, Cameron tells Ukip voters
DAVID Cameron yesterday made a last- ditch plea for Ukip supporters to ‘come home’ to the Conservatives.
In a direct appeal to voters who have shifted allegiance to Nigel Farage’s party, the Prime Minister vowed to ‘do more’ to respond to concerns about immigration.
With the election on a knife-edge, he warned that it is ‘not the time to send a message or make a protest’. Doing so could put the economic recovery at risk by allowing Labour back into power, said the Tory leader.
Mr Cameron also conceded that he understood the ‘frustrations’ of Ukip voters. It is a significant peace offering by the Prime Minister, who once dismissed Ukip as ‘ fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists’.
Speaking in Bristol yesterday, he said to those who had left the Tory fold: ‘Look, we’ve heard the message loud and clear about the things you want to see changed and we’ll change those things. Come with us, come back home to us, rather than risk all of this good work being undone.’
The latest polls have put the Conservatives and Labour virtually neck and neck.
A YouGov poll on Sunday had the Tories on 34 per cent, one point ahead of Labour, and Ukip in third place with 13 per cent of votes.
A poll in Tory-held South Thanet – where Mr Farage is running for Parliament – shows him in second place, and pollsters now believe Ukip will win just a handful of seats.
But there are deep concerns that support for Ukip, fuelled by the Conservatives’ failure to meet their pledge to cut immi- gration to ‘tens of thousands’, could swing enough votes in other seats to hand Ed Miliband a victory.
Mr Cameron, who also promised a referendum on Europe, said the Government had turned around the economy and cut taxes for working people.
‘To keep generating the jobs and the growth our country needs, come back to us, come back home to us,’ he pleaded.
The PM warned those who voted for ‘a minor party’ risked ending up with Ed Miliband propped up by the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon, ‘driving him into even more spending, welfare unlimited, debt bloat’.
Mr Cameron said the prospect of a minority Labour government held in power by the SNP was a ‘nightmare scenario’ and said the Conservatives ‘need’ Ukip support.
‘We are 23 seats short from an overall majority,’ he said.
‘We can provide that clear, decisive and frankly more accountable government that a majority Conservative gov- ernment would deliver. We need those 23 seats.’
Mr Farage immediately attacked the Prime Minister and said he would not win Ukip voters back. He said former Labour and Tory voters have found a ‘more authentic home’ where they do not get ‘roundly abused by their hosts’.
The ‘defection’ of a Tory parliamentary candidate to Ukip descended into farce yesterday when it was revealed he had already been dropped by the Conservatives.
Nigel Farage hailed the move by Mike Whitehead as a ‘hammer blow’ for the PM. But the Tories said the candidate for Hull West and Hessle had been ‘sacked’ for threatening to stand as an independent.