LONDON (Reuters) – Nearly nine in 10 of the over four million Britons who backed the anti-EU UKIP party in this month’s European elections will vote for them again in national polls next year, potentially costing Prime Minister David Cameron vital votes, according to a survey on Saturday.
If that were to happen, it would break the previous trend of support for UKIP in EU ballots disappearing at parliamentary elections.
UKIP, which calls for Britain to leave the European Union, won 4.3 million votes and topped the vote last week, scoring a 27.5 percent share, ahead of the main opposition Labour Party and ruling Conservatives.
However, in the 2009 European elections, the party took 16.5 percent of the vote before falling to just 3 percent a year later in a general election, failing to win a single seat in parliament.
Britons are expected to elect a new government by May 2015, with Cameron – currently at the head of a coalition with the junior Liberal Democrat party – promising to renegotiate Britain’s EU membership terms and hold an in/out referendum within two years, if his party achieves an overall majority.
