Farage Expects Some Tories to Defect to UKIP
In an exclusive interview with http://www.ThisIsLondon.co.uk Nigel Farage, Leader of UKIP said he wouldn't be surprise if numerous Toried jumped ship to escape the depression their more patriotic members must surely be under following last Monday's vote for a bill on calling for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.
He said: "I'm not going to tell you they are on the verge of coming across," he said. "All I can tell you is that it's being discussed. I do know people in the Conservative Party - and I've spoken to some this morning - who are deeply depressed at the moment. Some of them have got to be asking themselves, 'What if a whole group of us went to Ukip?
"I know it is difficult for other people. But 20 years ago, when they forced Maastricht through, there was nowhere for Conservatives to go. Now, I would argue that Ukip is a real alternative.
"We'll be fighting the case for Britain's biggest industry. London needs to think global, not European," he said. "Just one EU directive, the alternative investment fund management directive, meant that in 2010 one in four hedge funds left London.
"Democracy is a safety valve. If you have no mechanism for changing your future, you are more likely to revert to other means. Gerry Adams, on the eve of the referendum in Ireland said, 'we haven't fought the British for 500 years to have Ireland governed from Frankfurt and Brussels.'
"The Germans slag off the Greeks. The Greeks burn flags with swastikas on them. Far from making us all friends, it's turning us against each other."