FARAGE PARTY ON COURSE FOR POLL WIN
Farage’s Brexit Party out in front for Euro elections
NIGEL Farage’s Brexit Party is on course to sweep to victory in the European elections, a poll has suggested.
The YouGov survey placed the former UKIP leader’s new party on 27 per cent of the vote for the May 23 ballot.
Labour came in at 22 per cent and the Tories at 15 per cent.
Ukip, which under Farage’s leadership was victorious in the last European elections in 2014, was favoured by just seven per cent of those who took part in the YouGov survey.
Farage has bet £1000 on his party – launched this month – winning.
The poll of 1855 voters, for the People’s Vote campaign, suggested Labour’s present position of backing Brexit could hamper its performance.
Just 15 per cent would back Jeremy Corbyn’s party on its existing plan to quit the EU with a customs union, climbing to 23 per cent if it backed a second referendum.
But the poll suggests confusion among voters because 22 per cent said they plan to back Labour anyway – with many apparently unaware of the party’s policy on Brexit.
Labour’s former foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett, who wants another EU vote, said: “The message of this poll is loud and clear. It suggests that if anyone can stop Farage winning, it is Labour – and only if we back a people’s vote.”
Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable said it would be a “game-changer” for Labour “if they made it clear that in a referendum campaign, they would campaign to Remain within the EU”.
Cable admitted anti-Brexit parties should have forged a pact for European elections.
He added: “There’s a variety of different parties offering the same message.
“It would be better, from the point of view of the supporters of British membership of the EU, if we were fighting together under the same banner.”
In 2014, Ukip topped the European elections with 26.6 per cent of the vote.
The party’s popularity has slumped under current leader Gerard Batten.