Neil Hamilton believes there is a seismic political revolution taking place in the UK which the depleted major political parties have chosen to ignore because they have failed to realise how out of touch they are with the mass of disillusioned voters.
And the result will be an overwhelming victory for UKIP at Thursday’s EU elections – for some strange reason David Cameron and Ed Miliband don’t think it matters – and again at the General Election next year – according to Neil Hamilton, UKIP’s Wiltshire chairman and much travelled director for its EU campaign, in the midst of the mud slinging war taking place in the run-up to the polls.
“We’re dipping into the anti-politics revolution,” 65-year-old Mr Hamilton told Marlborough News Online. “This is the fundamental re-alignment of British politics which is now possible and something the old SDP, which many of the voters may not have heard of, talked about.
“But the SDP could never bring it about because they were part of the accepted political establishment at the time, whereas UKIP is an anti-establishment party.
“That is the big difference between 30 years ago and today, a point that has largely been missed in all the analysis of the revolution that is happening in British politics.”
The latest polls show that 40 per cent of disillusioned working class voters in the country feel they have no say in politics and how government is conducted.
The level of trust in political leaders across the EU is at the lowest level ever recorded, a long-term trend that is now being exposed.
“Cameron is running scared of having a public debate with Nigel Farage,” insisted Mr Hamilton. “What’s in it for him? He’s seen what’s happened to Nick Clegg. And I don’t think he even wants to do a debate with Miliband anymore.”
His assessment of the situation comes from recent days campaigning in the Labour heartlands of the North East.
“We got the most amazing reaction on the street,” he revealed. “If I had been wearing a blue rosette I would have been lynched. Virtually every other person, volunteered their support for without being approached to distribute UKIP leaflets and posters.
“None of the people in working class areas there feel that Ed Miliband has anything in common with them and there’s widespread dissatisfaction too with the way local Labour councils have behaved over the years feathering their own nests and doing nothing.
“Really extraordinary things are happening out there. It all augers terribly well for the forthcoming General Election too. This EU election will raise people’s acceptance of UKIP’s credibility and electability.
“And it is now more likely that people will vote for us in the General Election because they have done so in the European election than might have ever been the case before. The other parties have got a big problem on their hands.”
He believes that Labour is going to be in some serious difficulties. Meanwhile in the South West, according to all the latest poles, he is expecting UKIP to take three, if not four of the six MEP seats.
“I am amazed that it is quite so positive,” he added. “I knew we were going to do well but even I am surprised by the surge for UKIP that is taking place. We are obviously going to do 10 or 20 per cent better than I estimated.”
And he added: “If there is going to be a debate I can’t see how they can fail to invite Nigel Farage to be part of it. That would be widely regarded with laughter if they haven’t got the courage to face up to Farage.
“But Whether we have the debates or not, we think it is win, win for UKIP….”
In some ways he is disappointed not to be standing himself as a candidate in the EU elections. “It would be nice to be part of this great revolution,” he declared. “I’ve had a very interesting time of it running the campaign, going round the country in the past few months and seeing for myself how brilliantly it is going on the ground.”
And the former Tory MP, now 65, nevertheless insisted: “I can’t see myself retiring completely. Politics is in the blood, absolutely.”