Voters go to the polls on Thursday in local elections which will highlight whether the anti-European Union UK Independence Party (Ukip) poses a major threat to the main parties at the next general election.
Polls to elect councillors across 35 regions open at 7.00am and early results are expected to come in at around 1.30am on Friday.
Almost 10,000 candidates are standing in the 34 English top-tier counties and unitary authorities – – plus the Isle of Anglesey in Wales — which comprise around 40 percent of the country’s total electorate.
Ukip has this week fended off newspaper accusations of racism and incompetence but is optimistic of snaring votes from the big three parties.
Party leader Nigel Farage hit back at comments made by Conservative Foreign Secretary William Hague, who urged Tory supporters not to “waste” their vote by voting for UKIP.
“Every time we get an insult from a senior Tory it helps us,” he said.
“When you abuse us what you’re doing is abusing the vast majority of the British public who want us to be a free independent country, that controls its own borders,” he added.
Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg warned that Ukip was dragging the Tories further to the right.
“The Conservative emphasis before 2010 was to be centrist, compassionate, green party, but it is returning to some pretty traditional Conservative signature tunes that I totally understand they think are necessary to strengthen Conservative defences against Ukip,” he told the Guardian in an interview published on Thursday.
“There is a real struggle on the right of British politics,” he added.
It is expected to be a long night for the Tories, with Labour predicted to claim around 38 percent of the vote, up 16 points from four years ago.
Ukip is also hoping to deliver a bloody nose to Labour in the South Shields parliamentary by-election called after the resignation of former foreign secretary David Miliband.
Ukip hopes to inflict Tory misery
