Nigel Farage has insisted that UKIP will send MPs to Westminster for the first time in 2015, vowing to resign as leader if the party fails to win a seat. Speaking after his adoption as candidate in South Thanet, Kent, Farage told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'If we fail next year, the party will pick someone better than me. But we won't.'
Farage, who gained just 5% of the vote in the same constituency in 2005, argued that circumstances had changed dramatically. 'Ten years is a long time in politics – 10 years ago people did not see the UKIP message being relevant,' he said.
UKIP is focusing resources on a small number of seats, mostly coastal towns. A recent poll shows UKIP ahead of the Tories in South Thanet, where Conservative MP Laura Sandys is standing down. Farage warned against complacency, saying: 'Don't think that the heavy artillery from the Conservative and Labour parties will not be fired on this constituency.'
Farage also suggested UKIP could hold the balance of power at Westminster. Patrick O'Flynn, a UKIP MEP, tweeted: 'If one party is three seats short and we have eg six seats then in my book that is balance of power.'
