The survey was conducted by opinion polling agency YouGov. Five years ago, the current ruling party scored 32 percent in the European elections.
Winner of the election, according to the survey, would be the new Brexit party of MEP Nigel Farage, which would come to 37 percent. Accordingly, the Liberal Democrats could muster 19 percent, Labour 13 percent, the Greens 12 and UKIP three percent of the vote. The UK, like the Netherlands, will vote on Thursday.
Both Tory and Labour leaders have attacked Farage in a last-ditch bid to stop him before the elections, as the nation heads for the polls. Other surveys have put his new Brexit Party on target for a clear victory.
On Tuesday, numerous conservative MPs, including the spokesman for the pro-Brexit faction in the Tories, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson had sharply distanced themselves from May’s latest plans. Among other things, these provide for a vote in the lower house on a second referendum.
With this, May wants to win over mainly Labour MPs for her deal. May had previously failed three times in the lower house with an exit agreement negotiated by her with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. UK voters are expected to punish the Conservatives for failing to take Britain out of the EU as promised.
Rees-Mogg, whose sister is campaigning for Farage’s Brexit party, wrote on Twitter: “The Prime Minister’s recent proposals are worse than before and would leave us chained to the EU. It’s time to quit World Trade Organization conditions.”
Johnson, who could be May’s successor, said: “This draft is directly opposed to our manifesto – I will not vote for that. One must now deliver what the British voted for.”
Meanwhile, Farage was attacked on a campaign tour in Newcastle. A 32-year-old man threw a milkshake at him. “Unfortunately, some ‘remainers’ have been radicalized to such an extent that a normal election campaign is no longer possible,” complained Farage on Twitter.
Britain is only taking part in Thursday’s elections, to elect 73 MEPs to the European Parliament in Brussels, because the planned departure date of March 29 was delayed.
Labour is also facing a huge loss of votes because of its dithering on Brexit, with Remain supporters backing the Liberal Democrats and Leave voters crossing over to Farage’s news party.
UK, YouGov poll:
European Election
BREX-EFDD: 37% (+3)
LDEM-ALDE: 19% (+2)
LAB-S&D: 13% (-2)
GREENS-G/EFA: 12% (+1)
CON-ECR: 7% (-2)+/- 8-17 May 2019
Field work: N/A
Sample size: N/A#EP2019 #Brexit pic.twitter.com/7fgqGszsjX— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) May 21, 2019
Farage has neither held a seat in the House of Commons, nor a seat around the cabinet table, yet he is one of the most important British politicians of the past few decades. He plans to abolish the House of Lords and “completely change” the UK political landscape, he told German weekly Der Spiegel.
According to Farage, “electoral reform, getting rid of the House of Lords, which is now full of 700 friends of Tony Blair and David Cameron,” will be his goal. “Our whole system has been corrupted. We want fundamental political change, the right, as in Switzerland, for people to call referendums. It’s about breaking the two-party system.”
By becoming the biggest British party in the European Parliament, the Brexit Party will gain the right to enter Brexit talks, Farage said. “If we win the European elections, and we will, we have to have a say in where the country goes from here. If the Conservative Government denies that to us, they will look even more stupid.”
Former President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus says Europe needs The Brexit Party to win this Thursday. pic.twitter.com/ppu8ttdNMi
— The Brexit Party (@brexitparty_uk) May 21, 2019
Czech statesman and international face of the anti-communist Velvet Revolution, Vaclav Klaus, this week made a surprise speech the Brexit Party’s Rally for Democracy in London.
On Tuesday Klaus arrived as a guest at the event, the largest political rally to take place in the United Kingdom before the country votes on Thursday.
President Klaus – the first democratically elected prime minister of the Czech Republic – in a show of support for Farage’s party, congratulated the British for voting to take back control from the European Union.
“I have to tell you in the moment where we first heard the results of the Brexit referendum, many Czechs opened champagne bottles! It was a great event, and not just for you, but for us as well. It is not just your victory, but of all European democrats. It was an important message,” Klaus told the cheering audience.
The UK Electoral Commission meanwhile launched a “dawn raid” on the Brexit Party’s offices to investigate spurious allegations of financial impropriety, but “after seven hours the electoral commission has not found a single misdeed by the Brexit Party of any kind at all” said Farage.
“So let’s make it clear, shall we, make it clear to the conspiracy theorists. Those who think that somehow the Russians are funding us. [We need to] get rid of the Electoral Commission, full of political placemen who are part of the Westminster establishment,” Farage told his audience.