Ukip on course to win more than HALF of votes in some areas despite 1 in 3 voters saying Farage's party is racist

ComRes/ITV News poll puts Ukip on 38%, Labour 27%, Tories 18%

In Eastern region and West Midlands more than 50% say they will vote Ukip

Lib Dems down to only 3% in Wales and Tories fall to 14% in South West

32% say Ukip is a racist party and 38% claim they don't have sensible ideas

Nigel Farage accused of 'bottling it' after refusing to stand in by-election



More than half of voters in some parts of Britain are planning to vote Ukip in next month's crunch European elections, a new poll has revealed.

Overall, 38 per cent of Brits certain to vote in the May 22 election say they will back Ukip. This is 11 per cent higher than Labour - who sit in second on 27 per cent.

The Tories trail in third, on just 18 per cent, with the Lib Dems even further back with just 8% support.



A new ComRes survey for ITV News shows 38 per cent of people are planning to voe for Ukip on May 22 in the European Parliament elections

Nigel Farage on the campaign trail in Swansea. Even in Wales, a traditional Labour heartland, almost a third of voters say they are planning to back Ukip

But Nigel Farage's party is backed by half of voters in some of its English strongholds.

In the West Midlands, some 52% of voters say they will back Mr Farage's party.

In the European Parliament's 'Eastern' constituency - taking in all of East Anglia and counties north of London - support is even higher, at 53%.

Across England, support for Ukip has reached 41%, according to the respected pollsters ComRes.

Four in 10 voters in the South East and London are set to back the party, 44 per cent in the South West, 37 per cent in the South West and 36 per cent in the East Midlands.

Even in the traditional Labour heartlands of the North East and Yorkshire, Mr Farage's party is backed by more than a third of the electorate that is certain to vote.

Mr Farage is, however, struggling to break through outside England.

While 29 per cent of Welsh voters say they will back Ukip, this is seven points behind Labour who lead the polls.

But in Scotland just 12 per cent support Mr Farage's party, according to the poll.



In the Eastern region and West Midlands more than half of people say they plan to vote Ukip

'FRIT' FARAGE RULES OUT STANDING FOR UKIP IN NEWARK BY-ELECTION

Nigel Farage today threw away the chance to become an MP within weeks as he ruled himself out of standing in a crunch by-election. The Ukip leader said he would not be the party's candidate in the Tory seat of Newark vacated by shamed MP Patrick Mercer who resigned last night in a sleaze scandal Last night Mr Farage said David Cameron would have to resign as Prime Minister if he won the seat for Ukip, but today he confirmed he would not be on the ballot paper. But in a statement outside a pub in Bath this morning, Mr Farage claimed he had not had long to consider whether or not to run. 'I have no doubt that UKIP will throw the kitchen sink at this Newark by-election, but it won’t be me doing it and we won’t get that huge distraction,' he told BBC Breakfast. Tory defence minister Anna Soubry said on Twitter: 'Niger Farage is not stupid - he knows he'd lose and runs frit from Newark!'

Mr Farage's soaring support ahead of next month's election comes despite a third of Brits thinking his party is racist.

The ComRes poll for ITV News reveals 32 per cent think Ukip is racist - including 52 per cent of likely Labour voters at next month’s European Parliament elections.

A third of the public say UKIP is more honest than other parties - but four in 10 voters disagree with this.

Brits are also split about whether the party has sensible policies: 38 per cent think not, but 34 per cent think the party does.

But worryingly for the Prime Minister, just under half of 2010 Tory supporters - 48 per cent - think Ukip has sensible policies.

Overall, support for Mr Farage's party is up eight per cent in just a month. Labour are down three per cent and the Tories four per cent.

The party's support also falls dramatically for the next General Election.

A quarter of likely Ukip voters at the European Parliamentary elections say that they are unlikely to vote for the party at the General Election.

Just 55% say that they are very likely to vote for the party in 2015, compared to 90% of Labour voters and 88% of Conservative voters.

Today's poll figures will come as welcome relief for Mr Farage, who faced ridicule throughout the day for refusing to stand for Parliament in an upcoming by-election.

Opponents accused the Ukip leader of 'bottling it' and being 'frit' after announcing he would not be the party's candidate in the Tory seat of Newark vacated by shamed MP Patrick Mercer.

Last night Mr Farage claimed Mr Cameron would have to resign as Prime Minister if he won the seat for Ukip, but today he confirmed he would not be on the ballot paper.

Labour frontbencher Rachel Reeves said: 'I'm not surprised that Nigel Farage doesn't want to fight in Newark.

'He bottles it when there's a real contest, and when he has a chance to prove that people want him as a member of parliament he backs away and he's done that again.'

Despite soaring support for Ukip, Nigel Farage is not universally liked. In Wales today protesters disrupted his planned walkabout around Swansea city centre

Tory defence minister Anna Soubry said on Twitter: 'Niger Farage is not stupid - he knows he'd lose and runs frit from Newark!'

But Mr Farage claimed that putting his own name forward for the seat would cause a 'distraction' from the party's bid to win the European Parliament elections on May 22.

A by-election has been rumoured since the cash-for-questions scandal broke last summer.

But in a statement outside a pub in Bath this morning, Mr Farage claimed he had not had long to consider whether or not to run.

'I have no doubt that UKIP will throw the kitchen sink at this Newark by-election, but it won’t be me doing it and we won’t get that huge distraction,' he told BBC Breakfast.

'It was only 12 hours ago that Patrick Mercer stood down so I haven’t had long to think about it, but I have thought about it and we’re just over three weeks away from a European election at which I think UKIP can cause an earthquake in British politics, from which we can go on and not just win one parliamentary seat but win quite a lot of parliamentary seats.

Nigel Farage expects to top the polls in next month's European election - pushing the Tories into third behind Labour

'And for that reason I don’t want to do anything that deflects from the European election campaign so I’m not going to stand in this by-election.

'I want to focus the next three weeks on winning the European elections and also I don’t have any links with the east Midlands; I would just look like an opportunist and I don’t think that would work.'

Later he appeared to admit part of the reason he did not stand was he did not think he would win.

He told Sky News: 'I'm not sure electorally it would have worked anyway.'

The seat went to Labour in 1997 during the first Tony Blair landslide but returned to the Tories in 2001.

Last night Mr Farage told the BBC that if he stood and won Mr Cameron would 'have to resign' but if he lost Ukip would be finished: 'The bubble is burst.'

The Tories were quick to seize on Mr Farage's decision as proof he lacked the will to fight a difficult election.

Asked on Sky News 'The question is have you bottled it?' Mr Farage replied: 'Yes.'