ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Let’s talk politics, as we do on this programme, about the UK Independence Party, which albeit briefly surpassed the Lib Dems in the polls to become Britain’s third most popular party. The Eurozone debt crisis, faltering UK growth and criticism of the European Court of Human Rights have presented a perfect anti-EU storm perhaps, well UKIP seem well placed to tap into the growing disenchantment with other main political parties but can they secure a breakthrough at next month’s local elections? The party’s leader, Nigel Farage, joins me now, a very good morning to you Mr Farage. Do you think it is matters arising out of the EU that is leading to the party’s popularity? People are not discussing membership of the EU per se but certainly the Eurozone crisis and the European Court of Human Rights is more or less on everyone’s lips.

NIGEL FARAGE: Well it is but it goes further than that. If we talk about jobs, growth, if we talk about mass immigration into Britain, green taxes, all these things are linked to our membership of the European Union and long gone are the days when UKIP was seen to be a party out on the fringes, talking about something that only interested a tiny percentage of the population. I would argue that in terms of the debate that will go around lunch tables today, we are right at the heart of that.

DM: So we are going to hear less of the anti-EU rhetoric then? Are you going to tone that down a bit and talk more about the other things that you have been thinking about for years and years but we haven’t listened to?

NF: We used to be talking about who governs Britain, to try and wake people up to the fact that 75% of our laws were made somewhere else. What we’re now talking about is how Britain should be governed once we have that independence back.

DM: You turned that round very nicely but there is also another element I mentioned in that introduction, I’m not sure how you’ll take this but are you perhaps the George Galloway of the right in that there is an appetite for people who aren’t from the big parties any more, who are seen to connect in a certain fashion with what people are thinking and doing?

NF: Well yes, because those three parties …

DM: So you are the George Galloway of the right?

NF: Well no, he’s teetotal and I’m not, that is a very big difference, believe you me. No, I think we look at three parties, they look the same, they sound the same, frankly you can’t put a cigarette paper between them on most major policy issues so we have a political class who are increasingly being despised.

DM: So what are you hearing on the door steps in these local election campaigns and of course the London Mayoral campaign?

NF: Well I’ve been Tory all my life but never again, I’ve been Labour all my life but never again, we used to vote Lib Dem as a protest vote but now they are part of the establishment so there is a real hunger to look for something different to do. The key is this: do people go out and vote UKIP simply as a protest vote, simply as two fingers up to the establishment …

DM: Well that is the danger.

NF: … or do they start going out and voting UKIP because they see what we’ve got is a radical policy platform for a new renewed Britain. Now if we can turn negative, I hate everybody, we’re going to vote UKIP into a positive, let’s vote UKIP because they’ve got a vision for the future, then I think the rises you have seen recently in the polls will continue.

DM: Have you got that thought out manifesto already and particularly on the issue of the economy? There seems to be a quite polarised debate on that because the parties are so close on so many other issues but you have got this issue of deficit reduction, too far too fast, or not. Where is UKIP?

NF: Well we believe in growth and we believe growth comes from the bottom up, we believe that the 4.2 million small businesses and sole traders in this country need the burden of regulation lifted off their backs, health and safety, environmental and particularly employment legislation.

DM: But we do hear that from the Conservative quarter.

NF: Yes, but they can’t do anything about it because all of that legislation is made in Brussels and although Mr Cameron tries not to talk about that, we cannot change any of that all the while we are part of this European Union and so Cameron can make all the promises he wants, whether it’s business regulations, whether it’s votes for prisoners, whether it is the deportation of Abu Qatada, all of it is directly linked to the EU.

DM: Aren’t people listening to that going to go, here he goes, he’s brought it back to the EU again, what about a policy on unemployment, what about programmes on apprenticeships to get young people back into work, to get them experience?

NF: We are the only party saying that the school leaving age should not go up to 18, we’re the only party saying we should not be sending 50% of our youngsters to university, we’re the only party saying that apprenticeships and people learning trades and skills is a very good thing, we’re the only party saying stop the total open door immigration situation that we have with Eastern Europe and we’re the only party saying let’s cut back on employee protection so that small companies can start giving our youngsters a chance.

DM: So you’re telling me that’s really shining with the voters. Would you really dare to have the ambition, I mentioned one of those polls that showed you fairly briefly neck and neck or ahead of the Liberal Democrats, would you dare to have the ambition to push them permanently into fourth place?

NF: We’re going to.

DM: You do have the ambition?

NF: Well it’s not an ambition, I think it is an absolutely realistic goal. UKIP is a credible organisation where we have developed a broader range of policies, people realise that Lib Dems, Labour, Tory, they are just three social democrat parties, it is all a lot of mush, no one stands for anything, no one is prepared to put the interests of the British people first. We are a patriotic party, we are a Eurosceptic party, we don’t dislike anybody but we want to put Britain first.

DM: You are heavily critical of all of them including the Conservatives, presumably you wouldn’t turn down a couple of Conservative MPs if they wanted to defect?

NF: Well we’ve had a Tory MEP join us recently, we had a former Chief Whip from the House of Lords join us recently and we also had the Tories biggest ever donor join us recently and if a couple of MPs want to come and join us, that would be just great.

DM: Okay, that’s an invitation. Nigel Farage, thank you very much indeed, leader of UKIP there, Nigel Farage.