Founded in 1993, UKIP has largely been a one-issue party; working to get Britain out of the EU. It currently holds nine of the UK’s 73 seats in the European Parliament. Andy Mycock, a political scientist at the University of Huddersfield says that UKIP will probably make huge gains in the EU elections “because of a general disaffection with the European Parliament and this notion that Europe is somehow restraining British freedom.” In fact, UKIP has been so successful in convincing the British public that the EU is taking away their freedom and disenfranchising them politically, that the Conservative Party has started to take a much harder line on Europe for fear of losing votes to UKIP. It is the main reason why David Cameron has promised to hold a referendum on EU membership.
UKIP’s other main policy is to strengthen control over immigration. Freedom of movement within the EU is strongly opposed by UKIP and this too has found a certain resonance within the British electorate. Nigel Farage, UKIP’s leader, told the party’s spring congress that the greatest threat to Britain was what he perceived to be the country’s inability to control immigration. “If you believe that we should govern our borders,” he said, “… if you believe we should have a sensible immigration policy where we have not just quantity control but quality control as well, if you believe we should model our immigration system along the lines of a country like Australia – then vote UKIP on May the 22nd,” he said.
At the 2009 EU elections the turnout in the United Kingdom was only 34%. It would be a tragedy if Britain’s future in Europe were to be determined by just a third of its electorate.
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