Nigel Farage,the leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party has offered to do a deal with PM Cameron's Conservatives if they fail to win forthcoming General Election outright.
With opinion polls currently showing that no single partyis likely to win a majority on May 7, Farage said his party and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party could combine forces to support the Conservatives on an issue-by-issue basis.
In further extracts from his new book, published in the Sunday Telegraph today Farage says
I would look to do a deal where we would back key votes for them, such as the budget, but in return for very specific criteria on an EU referendum
The terms of my deal with the Tories (Conservatives) would be very precise and simple. I want a full and fair referendum to be held in 2015 to vote on being in or out of the European Union
Farage stipulated that only those with British passports should be allowed to vote in a referendum, there should be strict spending limits for both sides of the campaign and the wording of the question asked should be,"Do you wish to a be a free, independent sovereign democracy?".
If David Cameron agrees to these terms, provided that the Tories show that they are being responsible about the budget and that they are committed to deficit reduction, there is no question that UKIP would not do a deal
More from the book here, and Telegraph here
Being "responsible" about the budget may be no less a debating point than a referendum this year with UK fin min George Osborne on the back foot balancing the books as per his projections but with recent talk about making further cuts financed in some part by hiking VAT (sales tax)
On Wednesday he delivers his final Budget before the election which can be expected to have more than one eye on winning votes.
More previews on that coming soon here
