Cameron will change policy, says UKIP chief

British prime minister David Cameron will be forced to step up his drive to claw back powers from the EU to head off a challenge to his leadership after losing votes to the anti-EU UK Independence Party, its leader Nigel Farage said.

With less than 10 councils still to announce their results, UKIP was celebrating a gain of 159 seats, while Labour gained 251 and the Green Party 17.

The Conservatives has lost 196 and the Liberal Democrats 252.

Before Thursday’s elections, UKIP had just 17 council seats.

Cameron has promised to give Britons a vote on EU membership by the end of 2017 if re-elected in a national vote next year, in part because of the dramatic rise of Farage’s UKIP party which has transformed British politics by tapping into popular discontent about immigration levels and established politicians.

UKIP wants Britain to leave the EU immediately, arguing it will be more democratic and prosperous outside the bloc and be able to stem what it regards as an unsustainable flow of immigrants from EU states such as Romania and Bulgaria.

Farage, whose party is likely to have made significant gains in European elections, said UKIP’s electoral success meant Cameron would now have to become even tougher on Europe to counter a probable challenge from inside his own Conservative party.

“Cameron will change policy,” Farage said.

“He will try and sound more Eurosceptic. I think he will try and pen in a bit the renegotiation time for our deal with Brussels because I think actually it is the renegotiation which weakens his argument.”

Cameron’s Conservative party has long been convulsed by a strongly Eurosceptic wing within it. Partisan fights over Europe were the undoing of the last two Conservative prime ministers, John Major and Margaret Thatcher.

Cameron has promised to try to claw back a range of powers if re-elected next year to appease Eurosceptics and to then give Britons a referendum on whether to remain inside the EU by the end of 2017.

But he has so far garnered only limited backing for his plans among EU states and German chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out the prospect of a far-reaching overhaul of the bloc’s treaties.

Farage, who styles himself as the antidote to Britain’s established politicians, argues that Cameron will get nowhere with his renegotiation and that Britain will end up outside the EU.

He said he would use the European elections to trigger a “political earthquake” in Britain.

“There are certainly a few tremors knocking around,” Farage said, refusing to drink beer, his favoured beverage, after earlier downing several pints of it in front of the cameras to celebrate the best election result in UKIP’s 20-year history.

“We are going to find out [tomorrow] night. I would say the signs look encouraging but I’m not going to count any chickens before they have hatched.”

The 50-year-old former metals trader in the City of London has seen UKIP support soar in the eight years since Cameron dismissed it as a bunch of “fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists”.

In English local elections on Thursday, UKIP poached seats from Conservative strongholds such as Basildon in the south and from Labour heartlands in the north such as Sunderland.

In Basildon, where Farage was greeted as a hero by local supporters, UKIP won 11 seats to become the second largest party on the council. The Conservatives lost seven seats but remain the biggest party in the area.

Cameron, Labour leader Ed Miliband and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg — admitted the vote showed disaffection with politicians and concern over the economy, welfare, and immigration.

Farage said all three would have to change tack on Europe or find new jobs: “They will move their rhetorics, they will challenge their leaders’ positions,” he said.

“Miliband will be pressured to offer a referendum; Clegg will be pressured to become the next European Commissioner in June; and Cameron may find 46 signatures by the autumn to challenge his leadership,” Farage said.

But if Farage secures a big win in the European elections, what will he do with his influence?

Farage said he would wanted Martin Schulz, a strong federalist, to lead the next European Commission because he felt Schulz’s pro-European views were so abhorrent that they would undermine the European project he despises.

Two sources said yesterday that Cameron was strongly opposed to Schulz getting the top job, precisely because he felt the German was too federalist.

Farage was less enthusiastic about Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France, ruling out an alliance in the European Parliament with it.