Anti-Europe party wants EU vote guarantee "in blood"

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - The leader of an anti-European Union party that could have an impact on the next election said it could do a deal with the Conservatives or another party if it were guaranteed "in blood" a referendum on EU membership.

The small UK Independence Party (UKIP) has been rising in popularity, capitalising on the economic crisis in Europe and attracting eurosceptic voters from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives.

Its leader, Nigel Farage, has used fiery anti-EU rhetoric to galvanise his supporters, in one case telling the European Council president that he had the "charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk".

Commentators say UKIP could benefit from Britain's prolonged economic gloom, which the government blames on the euro zone debt crisis, and could further eat into support for the Conservatives, which has many eurosceptic members.

By contrast, any pact with the Conservatives ahead of the 2015 election might avert the risk for Cameron of a split in the right-wing vote and help him secure closely-fought seats.

"The only way we would even consider a negotiation of any kind at all would be if first an absolute promise was made to give this country a full, free and fair referendum so that we can decide whether we remain members of the EU or not," Farage told a UKIP conference in Birmingham on Friday.

"I don't think a cast-iron guarantee would satisfy UKIP, I think at a minimum it would have to be written in blood," he said to loud applause by hundreds of delegates.

Farage denied media speculation that he had offered a deal and said any talk of a possible pact had come from the Conservatives, who he said were anticipating a breakup of their coalition with the Lib Dems. But he left the door open.

"If an opportunity came which meant that we could get this country closer to walking through a door marked 'UK independence,' if we had the opportunity to do something that was in our national interest, we would be silly not to at least consider it," he said.

UKIP wants Britain to leave the 27-nation EU, which it sees as an ineffective organisation of mostly unelected bureaucrats. Britain has been an EU member since 1973.

REVIEW OF EU RELATIONSHIP

Cameron has resisted calls, including from right-wingers in his own party, to hold an in/out referendum. But, keen to avoid the party strife over Europe that sank the careers of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, Cameron has pledged a review of the UK's relationship with Europe and a referendum in the future.

Paradoxically, the UKIP has had some of its biggest electoral successes in the European Parliament, where it currently has 12 members, including Farage.

A dapper former commodities trader who once survived a plane crash, Farage is an able public speaker who is seeking to move his party from protest-vote movement to major player in right-wing British politics.

The party recorded its best-ever local election results in May and recent polls have shown its national support on the rise - at around 10 percent compared to the last general election, when it won 3 percent of the vote but failed to elect a single MP.

Farage makes no secret of his ambitions, saying he wants to win European Parliament elections held in 2014.

"That would change the game," said a party spokesman.

He said a deal with the Conservatives or another major party might mean that UKIP candidates stand down in some races and Conservatives in others, clearing the way for UKIP to break into parliament. But, the spokesman stressed, not such detail had been considered.

The three-day conference in Birmingham was designed to show UKIP is more than a single-issue party, with speakers talking about immigration and environmental policies. Guests included Timo Soini, who led the nationalist True Finns party to a surprising 19 percent of the vote in 2011 elections.

Farage took aim at European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and his call for the EU to be turned into a federation of nation states. "They're not pretending anymore," Farage said. "Mr Barroso ... used the F-word, it's out of the bag: it is going to be a federal Europe."

A referendum would be inevitable, Farage said.

But the possibility of an electoral pact with the Conservatives is not without danger for the UKIP. It could risk alienating the UKIP base, as happened to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's Lib Dems, who are now denounced by some leftists who accuse the party of betraying its values for power.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ukip-seeks-eu-referendum-guarantee-blood-122146610.html

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