Anti-EU party would offer deal to Cameron's Conservatives if they fail to win May election outright
The leader of Britain's anti-EU UK Independence Party has offered to do a deal with Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives if they fail to win a knife-edge May election outright.
The leader of Britain's anti-EU UK Independence Party has offered to do a deal with Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives if they fail to win a knife-edge May election outright.
With opinion polls showing it is likely no single party will win a majority on May 7, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said his party and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party could combine forces to support the Conservatives on an issue-by-issue basis.
Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's relations with the European Union ahead of a membership referendum by the end of 2017, but UKIP would demand that vote is held this year. "I would look to do a deal where we would back key votes for them, such as the budget, but in return for very specific criteria on an EU referendum," Farage said in extracts from his new book, published in the newspaper yesterday.
"The terms of my deal with the Tories (Conservatives) would be very precise and simple. I want a full and fair referendum to be held in 2015."
UKIP, which won last year's European Union elections in Britain, has two seats in the 650-seat lower house of Britain's parliament. They are likely to win only a handful more in May but are expected to threaten Cameron's chances of re-election by splitting the right-of-centre vote.
Cameron has said he does not want to do a deal with any other party and is focused on winning a majority. Farage stipulated that only those with British passports should be allowed to vote in a referendum, there should be strict spending limits for both sides of the campaign and the wording of the question asked should be, "Do you wish to be a free, independent sovereign democracy?"
