LONDON: The United Kingdom Independence Party launched its platform for a May 5 poll on Friday, confident a pledge to pull Britain out of the European Union will help it topple mainstream candidates. Backed by the slogan “We Want our Country Back”, UKIP said it hoped to cause a stir in 21 areas where it polled well in European parliamentary elections last June, aided by former TV showman Robert Kilroy-Silk who has since quit.
“It is the only practical, indeed the only possible manifesto you have heard this week, because it is only possible if we regain our independence,” said UKIP leader Roger Knapman.
Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour party is on track to win a third term and fringe parties are expected to poll only a small share of the vote. But they could tip the balance in marginal seats and potentially cause an upset.
UKIP seized on the recent conviction of a failed Algerian asylum seeker for planning an Al Qaeda poison attack on Britain to argue that London had lost control of its borders.
“Labour hasn’t, the Conservatives can’t and the Liberal Democrats won’t. Only UKIP can and will restrict immigration to the present population,” Knapman said.
Party leaders also pounced on the collapse of carmaker MG Rover, which finally went under on Friday, to back up its point that Britain’s economy was at risk from membership of the EU.
UKIP had its best election result in last year’s European polls, polling 2.6 million and pushing the Liberal Democrats into fourth place on the national share of the vote.—Reuters
