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LONDON – Setting up an intriguing election battle, Britain’s opposition Labor Party announced Friday that it had hired President Obama’s chief campaign advisor to help the party return to power next year over the ruling Conservatives. The decision to recruit David Axelrod means that the 2015 British election will pit two of Obama’s strategists against each other. Working for the Conservatives is Jim Messina, who, like Axelrod, toiled on both of Obama’s presidential campaigns and who served as his deputy White House chief of staff during his first term. “David is used to tough fights, and he is going to...

The Tory revolt over Europe took a dramatic turn last night after senior Conservative David Davis called on the Government to open talks with Brussels on quitting the EU. Former Tory chairman Mr. Davis tore into David Cameron, accusing him of making a mess of his pledge to win back powers from the EU. “Scaremongers” who said Britain would collapse if it decided to go it alone were talking nonsense, said Mr Davis. Quitting the EU would be like a “revolution” and would boost UK jobs, wages, world power, arts and prestige, he added. Significantly, his intervention comes days after...

(Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron's handling of an expenses scandal engulfing one of his ministers has put him under pressure before European elections, threatening his Conservative party's already clouded electoral outlook. Cameron, whose party risks being beaten into third place in next month's European Parliament elections behind the anti-EU UK Independence party (UKIP), has stood by Maria Miller, Britain's minister for culture, since a parliamentary report ordered her to pay back wrongly claimed expenses last week. But the media and public backlash against Miller shows no sign of abating despite Cameron's efforts to end it. Many of his own...

Britain took another step towards an in/out referendum on its membership of the EU on Friday (5 July) after MPs unanimously backed a bill guaranteeing a vote by the end of 2017. … In a boisterous debate dominated by Conservative euroskeptics, Foreign Secretary William Hague endorsed the bill which was, he said, “about giving people the power to decide one of the greatest questions facing Britain.” …

Nigel Farage has pledged to follow the example of Paddy Ashdown and to establish "clusters of councillors" around the country elected on the challenging first-past-the-post system as a first step to winning parliamentary seats at future general elections. In a Guardian interview, the Ukip leader said people would vote for the "real thing" on Europe and immigration rather than support David Cameron who is occupying "our turf" under the influence of the Tory strategist Lynton Crosby. Farage admitted that his party is experiencing something of a "lull" but insisted that it was on course to win next year's European parliamentary...

An Audience With … Nigel Farage features a stage with only a table, a chair, and a bottle of wine as props. Farage thinks it will give him a chance to “explain who I am” and, crucially, to “reach a new audience”. … “We need a much more muscular defense of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Yes, we’re open to different cultures, but we have to defend our values. That’s the message I want to hear from the Archbishop of Canterbury and from our politicians. Anything less is appeasement of the worst kind.” Yet he speaks not as a defender of the...

The eurosceptic party's leader will tell activists gathered for its annual conference in London that Britain is "moving Ukip's way" on issues such as benefits, education and Europe. And he will put a tough line on immigration at the heart of his pitch to voters - warning the Tories that failing to block an influx of Bulgarians and Romanians to the UK will lead to a ballot box hammering. In a frank admission, he will accept that the media spotlight has exposed unpalatable views among its "eclectic" membership and that he had a "blistering row" with outspoken MEP Godfrey Bloom....

video 1:16:09 Interesting debate in which the conservatives are now trying to convince UKIP and Nigel Farage to take a dive in the next election while dangling the carrot of alliance later on. Nigel will have none of it. Great response from him. Tea Party is in a similar (yet not as strong) position as UKIP. We should study what is happening with UKIP very closely.

The often stale British political system is being rocked by its very own Tea Party. The UK Independence Party (UKIP), formed in 1993 opposing Britain’s entry into the European Union, failed to make an electoral dent for a long time. However UKIP has built up steam in recent years and is spearheading a seismic shift in the British political spectrum. In this year’s local elections – the British version of midterms -- UKIP took a stunning 23 percent of the vote, up from the 3.1 percent they won in the 2010 national election. Their leader, Nigel Farage, is buoyed by...

The UK Independence Party will receive a multi-million pound boost before next year’s European elections after winning support from one of Britain’s wealthiest businessmen. Paul Sykes, a self-made tycoon and veteran of the campaign to keep the pound 15 years ago, has promised to do “whatever it takes” to help Ukip top the polls in May. His move deals a big blow to the Conservatives as they fight to contain Nigel Farage’s party. Mr Sykes supported the Tories under Margaret Thatcher and Michael Howard, but has backed Ukip in the past, giving the party £1.5 million in 2004. His latest investment...

The often stale British political system is being rocked by its very own Tea Party. The UK Independence Party (UKIP), formed in 1993 opposing Britain’s entry into the European Union, failed to make an electoral dent for a long time. However UKIP has built up steam in recent years and is spearheading a seismic shift in the British political spectrum. In this year’s local elections – the British version of midterms -- UKIP took a stunning 23 percent of the vote, up from the 3.1 percent they won in the 2010 national election. Their leader, Nigel Farage, is buoyed by...

The often stale British political system is being rocked by its very own Tea Party. The UK Independence Party (UKIP), formed in 1993 opposing Britain’s entry into the European Union, failed to make an electoral dent for a long time. Their leader, Nigel Farage, is buoyed by their recent success. “We want to take back our country, we want to take back our government, and we want to take back our birthright,” Farage told FoxNews.com in forthright language rarely seen in British politics.Capitalizing on dissatisfaction with the Conservative Party’s shift to the center under current Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron...

The latest Opinium/Observer poll published on Sunday (19 January) suggested 52% of the British public aged over 18 would vote to leave the EU tomorrow, a small increase since last November when 50% said they would vote to leave. Sunday’s poll, carried out by Comres for the Independent on Sunday newspaper, also suggests the anti-EU and anti-immigration policies of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) remain popular, even though Cameron has already deployed tougher rhetoric on both issues. […] The poll came as UKIP was battling to restore party discipline after one of its local councillors in England caused it embarrassment...

A Thanet man has been charged and released on bail following an assault on UKIP party leader Nigel Farage with a placard. Andrew Scott, 37, from Ramsgate Road, Margate, was charged with assault by beating, after Mr Farage was allegedly attacked as he entered a hotel in Cliftonville at around 3pm yesterday. Unemployed Scott was released on conditional bail, to appear at Margate Magistrates' Court on March 3. As a condition to his bail he must not attend any political event of any political party, either in protest or support of the party in question. It comes after the South...

The incalculable damage that mass immigration from the third world has inflicted upon the United Kingdom is a subject that we’ve explored at length on American Rattlesnake. Although the ritualistic murder and dismemberment of Drummer Lee Rigby is the most notorious recent illustration of how this phenomenon has adversely impacted native Britons, there are many, many more such tragic examples that bear scrutiny. The most tragic loss experienced by those living there, of course, is the forfeiture of the right to discuss this issue in an honest and frank manner. One need only point to those critics of Islam and...

EU policies ranging from the single market and trade, to culture and transport, are good for the UK, according to a series of government reports on the balance of power between London and Brussels. The findings are contained in eight reports published on Thursday (13 February), which form the second batch of the UK’s “Balance of Competences” review, comprising more than 30 separate studies by a range of government departments. […] Euroskeptics are already unhappy the reports published so far have all offered qualified support for the way that Brussels is using its powers. “The whole review has been commandeered...

Ahead of May’s European Parliament election, with issues such as the economy and immigration to the fore, none of Britain’s three main parties are stealing a march on their rivals. The co-governing, right-of-center Conservative Party, also known as the Tories, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, is struggling. What remains of its traditional support base, including some MPs, often seems opposed to the modernizing, socially-liberal direction of its leadership. […] But viewing the UK's party-political landscape solely in terms of the traditional duopoly (plus the Lib Dems) misses the big political story, and what is likely to be the major...

Nigel Farage and Deputy Prime Minister Represent Opposite Ends of In/Out Argument LONDON— Nigel Farage, the leader of the small United Kingdom Independence Party, on Friday accepted a challenge from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to debate Britain's membership of the European Union, paving the way for the most ardent advocates of each side of the in/out argument to lock horns. Britain's future in the EU has become an increasingly open question after Prime Minister David Cameron pledged that if he wins a second term next year he will renegotiate Britain's ties with the bloc and then hold a national...

Mass immigration has left Britain an "unrecognisable" country that many people would not want to leave to their children and grandchildren, Nigel Farage has said. In one of his strongest attacks on immigration policy, he said the arrival of migrants has some British people feeling that parts of the country are now alien to them. The UK Independence Party leader said parts of the country had been "taken over" by foreigners and told how he caught a recent commuter train from London to Kent and had to wait for several stops before he heard English being spoken.

Nigel Farage yesterday said he felt “awkward” when he could hear no English being spoken while on a train from London to Kent. The UKIP leader described how he was on his way home when he went several stops without hearing his native tongue. His comments followed a provocative speech in which he claimed some areas of Britain are being “taken over” by migrants, while others have become “frankly unrecognizable”. They came a day after figures showed a significant rise in net migration. …