Ukip closing in on victory: Poll puts Farage seven points ahead on day of crucial EU vote

Opinium poll has Ukip on 32 per cent, with Labour trailing on 25 per cent

Tories on 21 per cent, with Lib Dems and Greens a distant fourth and fifth



Farage says a Ukip triumph will be a 'political earthquake' for Britain

An Opinium poll for the Daily Mail puts Nigel Farage's Ukip comfortably ahead of Labour, on 32 per cent to 25 per cent

UKIP are on course for an unprecedented victory in today’s European Parliament elections - despite Nigel Farage admitting he is ‘frazzled’ and cannot go on being the party’s dominant face.

An Opinium poll for the Daily Mail puts Ukip comfortably ahead of Labour, on 32 per cent to 25 per cent.

The Conservatives are on 21 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats battling the Greens for fourth place, each on a miserable 6 per cent.

Both Labour and the Conservatives appear reconciled to Ukip coming out on top, despite weeks of controversy over allegations of racism, homophobia and misogyny against the upstart party’s candidates.

David Cameron is ordering Tory troops to focus on a Westminster by-election in Newark early next month as an opportunity to halt the Ukip bandwagon.

Conservative strategists point to a sharp decline in Mr Farage’s personal ratings in recent weeks and compare him to a ‘shock jock’ radio host whose outbursts will not convince voters at a general election.

Labour officials, meanwhile, dismissed suggestions that failure to top the European poll would augur ill for their chances of winning power in 2015.

They insisted Ed Miliband will not bow to pressure from some Labour MPs to backtrack on his refusal to match the Conservatives’ promise of an in/out EU referendum, even if his party is beaten by Ukip.

Mr Farage said a Ukip victory in the European elections would represent a political ‘earthquake’ and repeated his willingness to do ‘a deal with the devil’ or make local pacts with MPs from other parties if it would help guarantee a referendum on Europe.

But he conceded the party would haemorrhage votes at next year’s general election unless it can persuade voters it is more than a ‘one-man band’.

The Ukip leader has blamed tiredness for his suggestion last week that everyone knows ‘the difference’ between Romanians and Germans. Mr Farage, whose second wife Kirsten is German, said he would not be happy if Romanians moved in next door.

Both Labour and the Conservatives appear reconciled to Ukip coming out on top

‘Right at the moment I’m so frazzled after a month on the road,’ he told the Mail. ‘This has been relentless. I have been doing this damn hard, maybe too hard actually.

‘This must change; we cannot go into a general election with me being seen to be the dominant figure.’

Mr Cameron said only a Conservative government could deliver a reformed relationship with Brussels, with new controls on free movement and further restrictions on migrants’ benefits.

That would followed by an in/out referendum on Britain’s membership by the end of 2017.

The Prime Minister said: ‘I’m convinced that we will get the changes that we want and my aim is to secure Britain’s place in a reformed European Union.

‘But that’s the real choice at this election – you’ve got Labour and the Liberals who can’t see anything wrong with Europe and you’ve got Ukip who can’t see anything right with Europe and want to walk away.’