LONDON, April 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The Brexit Party set up by anti-EU
firebrand Nigel Farage is leading Britain’s other political parties ahead of
European Parliament elections in May, according to an opinion poll published
on Wednesday.
The new party, which formally launched its campaign for next month’s votes
on Friday, has since opened up a five-point lead over the Labour Party, the
YouGov survey conducted at the start of this week found.
The party claimed 27 percent of respondents’ support, followed by Labour
on 22 percent and Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives in third place
on 15 percent.
The Brexit Party was trailing Britain’s two mainstream parties in a
similar YouGov poll released last week.
But it saw a 12-point overall spike in support after unveiling its
European elections campaign with much fanfare last week.
It is aiming to attract disgruntled eurosceptics angry at May’s failure to
complete Britain’s departure from the European Union by an original March 29
deadline.
However, the poll suggested the UK Independence Party (UKIP) — which
Farage previously led but has recently disavowed over its lurch towards more
far-right policies — has suffered most in the last week.
Its support halved from 14 to seven percent, according to the survey.
Under Farage’s leadership UKIP topped the last European elections in 2014,
capturing nearly 27 percent of the vote.
Farage went on to be one of the most prominent faces of the pro-Brexit
camp in a bitterly divisive 2016 referendum that voted to pull Britain out of
the EU after nearly half a century.
YouGov surveyed 1,855 adults on Monday and Tuesday for the sample.