More than one in ten Conservative voters at the last election now backs the anti-Brussels UK Independence Party, according to a poll commissioned by former Tory vice chairman Lord Ashcroft.
More than one in ten Conservative voters at the last election now backs the anti-Brussels UK Independence Party, according to a poll commissioned by former Tory vice chairman Lord Ashcroft
More than one in ten Conservative voters at the last election now backs the anti-Brussels UK Independence Party, but many will return to the fold if the Government delivers on immigration, welfare and the deficit, a poll suggests today.
Just a quarter of those considering voting UKIP name relations with Europe as one of the top three issues facing Britain, according to the survey commissioned by former Tory vice chairman Lord Ashcroft.
He warned that the promise of an EU referendum will not be enough to reverse an increase in support for UKIP.
The poll, based on interviews with more than 20,000 people, suggests that even among those voters who currently back UKIP, only seven per cent name resolving relations with Brussels as the single most important issue.
The survey finds the issue ranks behind economy growth, welfare, immigration and the deficit for this group of voters.
The poll suggests that UKIP will do ‘very well indeed’ in the European Parliament elections in 2014, after it finished in second place in 2009 with 16 per cent of the vote.
A string of recent polls has put UKIP ahead of the traditional third party, the Liberal Democrats.
But Lord Ashcroft said many voters viewed the EU polls as seriously as the Eurovision Song Contest.
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