Maybe not much should be made of a first-time entry to the Westminster Parliament by a party that was until recently seen as being on the political fringe. Even so, the by-election win last week by the U.K. Independence Party (Ukip) of Nigel Farage says something about the surge in support for the far-right anti-European Union (EU) parties beyond the May 2014 elections to the European Parliament. Equally, it marks an important moment in the steady undermining of the political centre in Britain by the mainstream parties — a space that is increasingly occupied by anti-immigrant and anti-EU forces. As with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front in France and the Danish People’s Party in Denmark, Ukip emerged on top in Britain, capturing 24 seats in the Strasbourg legislature and 27.5 per cent of the vote. Other radical right-wing parties also managed to pull their weight, ranking third in Finland, Austria, The Netherlands and Greece. Germany’s anti-euro party, launched in 2013, won seats in the EU Parliament; it also has a presence in three German states. Now, the former Conservative Member of Parliament, Douglas Carswell, clinched the Clacton-on-Sea win for Ukip, and the party came a menacingly close second in a Greater Manchester seat against the Labour party. A third by-election may be called soon, following another defection by a Conservative. The outcome is a pointer to the political uncertainties ahead of the country’s next general elections some 200 days away.
The latest results have triggered intense speculation on whether it is the Tories or Labour that would be hurt the most by a further consolidation of Ukip at the hustings. Mr. Farage is already trumpeting the outcome as a sign that his party is the real alternative the voters crave for. Having abandoned their traditional right-wing position for a hardline anti-immigrant and anti-EU stance over the years, the Conservatives are faced with Ukip wooing the same constituency. The loudest voices right through their current term with the Liberal Democrats have been those of the Tory back-benchers. They have pushed Prime Minister David Cameron to the point of promising an in or out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. Earlier in 2009, he led the British Conservatives out of the centre-right bloc — the European People’s Party — in the European Parliament. It is quite a contrast to the view spelt out by the Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill, when he invoked the idea of a united states of Europe in his famous 1946 University of Zurich speech. The general drift of things is not in a direction Britain’s businesses would be happy with. Labour in election mode is not likely to engage the forces hostile to integration.