Brexit Party rises ahead in polls, delivering blow on major parties in Britain

Source: Xinhua| 2019-05-12 19:54:49|Editor: Shi Yinglun
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LONDON, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Britain's newly-formed Brexit Party has raced ahead in two separate opinion polls Sunday as the country will participate in the upcoming European Parliament election, delivering a major blow on the two main parties.

The Brexit Party, which was launched by Nigel Farage in mid April, has overtaken Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party in a national poll, with Farage predicted to win 49 seats in a general election.

The survey carried out by ComRes found that if a May-led election campaign took place now the Conservatives would face their worst result in history, falling to third place in terms of vote share.

Main opposition Labour Party would become the largest party by a margin of 137 seats, with leader Jeremy Corbyn taking over at 10 Downing Street to lead a minority government.

The poll also found that the Conservatives would fall to fourth place in the European Parliament elections scheduled for May 23, with the Brexit Party gaining the highest share of the vote.

The poll, commissioned by Brexit Express, asked people of their voting intentions in the Euro election. Top came the Brexit Party with 27 percent, followed by Labour with 25, the Liberal Democrats with 14 percent and May's Conservatives just 13 percent.

Farage co-founded the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in 1993 to campaign for Britain's departure from the European Union. He quit as chairman after the 2016 referendum delivered its shock result showing 52 percent backed leaving against 48 percent wanting to keep the link with Brussels.

Andrew Hawkins, chairman of ComRes, described the poll as a "disaster," commenting: "If the Conservative leadership contenders are not careful, there will be no party for them to lead."

A second poll for the Observer newspaper Sunday by Opinium showed the Brexit Party would be one point behind the Conservatives in a general election for British parliamentary seats.

The Opinium survey showed Labour would be leading with 28 percent support, followed by the Conservatives with 22 percent and the Brexit Party on 21 percent.

In the European elections, the Opinium poll shows the Brexit Party racing ahead into first place with 34 percent support, in results almost mirroring the ComRes results.

Labour comes second with 21 percent, a seven point fall compared with a previous poll two weeks ago. The Liberal Democrats take third position with 12 percent, a five-point rise. The Conservatives have dropped three points to stagger into fourth place with 11 percent support.

More than 600 chairmen and chairwomen of local Conservative associations, along with councilors and party activists have accused May and her advisers of "sticking their fingers in their ears."

In a joint letter to the Sunday Telegraph they warned that if May cannot deliver a clean exit from Europe, MPs at Westminster must replace her urgently or risk disaster.

They said in their letter: "Unless we urgently change direction, there is now an existential threat to the party. If we deliver an honest Brexit successfully, we will see members and support flood back. More importantly, we will secure the long-term success of both the country and the party."

"We must give the people the Brexit for which they voted without delay. If Theresa May cannot and will not do that, then she must be replaced. MPs must do that urgently or risk disaster at the next election," they said.

Downing Street announced Saturday night that talks between the Conservative government and Labour to find a way through the Brexit deadlock would resume on Monday afternoon.

So far the two main parties have failed to reach a consensus deal that could be put before the House of Commons to pave the way for Britain to leave the EU.

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