Ukip: We’ll prop up Tories if EU vote is in 2015
UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said his party would work with a minority Conservative government if the Tories agreed to a “full free and fair referendum” on Britain’s membership of the European Union soon after the General Election.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday Politics, Farage said he wanted “the opportunity to get our country back, and for that to happen quickly.”
“You see, the whole problem with the current Cameron strategy is he’s trying to kick this into the long grass. So if we believe what David Cameron says and support him it’ll be three years before we get that referendum – a referendum, incidentally, in which he will campaign regardless for us to remain a member.”
Asked when he would want the referendum, Farage said: “Some time in July next year strikes me as a very good time to do this.”
The political support Farage was referring to is called a confidence and supply arrangement – where his eurosceptic party would back or abstain on budget and legislative programme votes. He said: “I’m not prepared to wait for three years. I want us to have a referendum on this great question next year, and if UKIP can maintain its momentum and get enough seats in Westminster we might just be able to achieve that.”