Polls and policy signal UKIP swing

Monday, 21st May 2012 Almost one in three people who voted Conservative at the last election are ready to back the UKIP, or have switched already, according to a devastating new opinion poll released over the weekend. The poll for the Independent on Sunday found 10 per cent of 2010's Tory voters say they have already decided to back UKIP while 26 per cent of those who still support the Conservatives are "seriously considering" switching to support the Party. Meanwhile, further evidence mounts today that UKIP policies on a wide range of topics – and not just Europe – are earning broad support from the British public and even leaders of other political parties! Just today we have Ed Miliband's repudiation of decades of Labour further education policy, the launch of the 2020 Tax Commission's Single Income Tax report and comments by Nick Clegg on the implications of the failures of EU policy which all come straight from the UKIP songbook. UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said: "It may be chicken, it may be egg, but whatever it is, it is obvious that what UKIP stands for is slap bang in the middle of public opinion." Following Mr Miliband's comments, the UKIP leader said: "Labour is now questioning the idea that funnelling 50 per cent of children through universities, no matter what the quality of the institution, nor the quality of the degree. It's something UKIP questioning for years. "Labour's fixation with targets like these has been slavishly followed by the current Government, but has not lead to a better-educated population. "Instead, we have a collapse in funding in higher education and the imposition of fees which are driving poorer students out of further education in its entirety and falsely raised expectations among graduates. Concentrating efforts on the academically able in universities while holding technical and vocational studies in equal esteem with them has to be the way forward. Elsewhere, following the release of the Tax Commission report, Mr Farage responded: "The TPA and IoD call for a simple, flat income tax at 30%, with a tax-free allowance at £10,000 pa is not exactly our policy, but within inches of it. "The country will never get back to prosperity until it recognises that the people who can do this are the people themselves, not the Government. To do that the Government must strip counterproductive taxes on businesses and individuals. "The Tax Commission's proposals on National Insurance, corporation tax, inheritance tax, fuel duty and the overall size of the state all chime with what we in UKIP have been saying for years. We are an over-taxed, over-regulated, over-controlled society. Only by setting people free will we restore growth and prosperity." UKIP policy also found an echo in Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg's comments to German magazine Der Spiegel after which Mr Farage said: "Nick Clegg is warning, as I did months ago, that the failures of EU leadership and policies is leading to a growth of extremism. "What did he think would happen when his beloved European Union is designed to specifically strip away national democracies and leave people impotent over their own futures? If you remove their ability to decide democratically then you leave people with fewer legitimate ways to express their opposition to the status quo."