People are coming over to the hardline anti-EU UKIP Party which sensationally won over 27 percent at the recent European elections as “they have given up on the other parties and they want real change,” Tim Aker, MEP from UKIP, told RT.
RT:Is this the political earthquake that Nigel Farage promised?
Tim Aker: Oh absolutely, we have had the first election in over one hundred years that has not been won by either the Labour or the Conservative Parties. UKIP came top and last week we gained hundreds of councilor, so it is a change in British politics.
RT:All the established parties say UKIP is a protest party. What have you got to say to that?
TA: At every election now they seem to say that it is a protest vote when UKIP does well. People are coming over to UKIP because they have given up on the other parties and they want real change. The only way that we can get back control of our borders is if we leave the European Union. The other parties only pay it lip service, but actually only UKIP has a plan to deliver.
RT:UKIP's faced its share of ridicule from the leading parties. What do you think is going through their minds now?
TA: They just do not know how to handle us, do they? So they decided to put aside their differences and all gang up on UKIP, which made the difference between UKIP and the old legacy parties just even clearer. They are the ones who want to be in the European Union, they are the ones who want to hand over 55 million pounds a day to the European Union and they are the ones who want the European Union to write our laws. We want to bring back our democracy, get control of our borders and stop sending 55 million pounds a day to the European Union. The choice could not have been starker and that is why UKIP swept the board.
RT:David Cameron and other party leaders are seeing the results of this election and will likely adapt their policies. Do you think they steal your thunder, so to speak?
TA: When David Cameron gave his famous Europe speech, our polls went up. When David Cameron made his even more famous immigration speech, our polls went up. We have got them talking about our issues, but they cannot deliver. You cannot get back control of your borders and be a member of the European Union. The more the politicians of the old parties try to increase expectations that they can get back control that they can deliver and control immigration whilst being in the European Union, the more it will dawn on people that they should stop being treated like fools. The only way to get back control of our borders is to leave the EU.
RT:Can your party take this momentum all the way to a general election?
TA: I will be up in Newark campaigning for the by-election. We have got clusters of seats that we are looking to target. You look at the Essex coast, you look at Kent, Lincolnshire and the Lincolnshire coast and we are doing very well there. We are learning from the Liberal Democrats. They took a very sensible root of building up local bases and getting councilors elected, getting into the local networks, building up local representation, which could transfer through to seats in the General Election. We are going to do that in the area that we have got councilors. We will build up a local reputation, a local base and a local organization, which is extremely important in getting the vote out and getting a message to the people and turning the seats UKIP.
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