The future is looking bright for Britain’s populist and patriotic U.K. Independence Party. According to a new poll, the party’s new leader — Paul Nuttall — is on track to win the by-election in Stoke Central on February 23. That’s significant because Stoke is one of Britain’s most important Labour strongholds. If the socialists lose their parliamentary seat to UKIP, it’s a sure sign that a populist revolution is coming in the next national elections.
According to the poll, Nuttall is currently enjoying a ten-point lead over his competitor from the Labour Party.
The by-election is set to take place on 23 February after leading moderate Tristram Hunt quit to become director of the V&A museum.
Despite being a very close third in the general election in 2017 the Tories are lagging behind on 10 per cent.
Stoke had one of the strongest Leave votes in the referendum with almost 70 per cent of voters backing Brexit.
One of the main reasons for Nuttall’s (and UKIP’s) rise is Labour’s opposition to Brexit. Stoke Central traditionally votes for Labour, but 70 percent of its constituents voted for Brexit in last year’s referendum. Labour, of course, was campaigning for continued EU membership.
Mr Nuttall, who took over from Nigel Farage as Ukip leader in November, has said he wants to turn it “into the patriotic party of the working class”.
According to the poll 30 per cent of the Stoke Central voters who indicated ‘Don’t Know’ for the upcoming byelection previously voted Labour while 10 per cent voted UKIP and 46 per cent for the Lib Dems.
Meanwhile 81 per cent who intend to vote Ukip are former Labour voters.
Let that sink in: 81 percent of UKIP voters in Stoke are former Labour voters. This is quite remarkable considering the fact that UKIP was long considered to pose a threat to the conservative Tories.
The conservatives, however, were able to cover their flank by a) organizing the Brexit referendum and b) having new Prime Minister Theresa May follow through on the referendum results. Conservative eurosceptics have no reason to leave the Tories now; in fact, they’ll be more determined than ever before to stay put, if only to make sure that May keeps her word.
Labour, on the other hand, has made a terrible miscalculation. Like every other leftist party in Europe, it is so blinded by its own multicultural, pan-European dream that it just doesn’t understand the average voter. To Labourites, support for the welfare state automatically goes hand in hand with mass immigration and an all-powerful European Union. Working-class voters beg to differ, however. They support the welfare state, but have completely different views from the party’s leadership with regards to immigration and the EU. To put it rather simply: they want less of both.
Keep an eye on the by-election in Stoke. If Nuttall does indeed win it, it’ll almost certainly mark UKIP’s national breakthrough. Oh, and even more good news: it’ll also mark the end of Labour as a major party.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member