UKIP yesterday pledged to fast-track British passport holders through airport customs in their own queue.
Nigel Farage said he wanted one queue for Britons and ‘one line for the rest of the world’ to help weed out illegal immigrants.
Giving his speech at the party’s conference, he claimed Ukip was ‘parking its tanks’ on Labour’s lawn and now threatened ‘the entire British political class’.
He promised to take his fight to Labour’s heartlands as Ukip unveiled a package of policies to broaden the party’s appeal.
Mr Farage said Ukip was attracting vast chunks of Labour’s traditional working-class voters as well as Tories.
He told supporters: ‘This party is not about Left and Right, this party is about right and wrong.’
Tougher border controls were promised, with more officials and health checks on migrants before they are allowed to enter the UK. He also said Ukip would:
- Scrap inheritance tax and take minimum wage earners out of income tax altogether,
- Hit wealthy spenders with a so-called ‘Wag tax’, meaning they would have to pay a higher rate of VAT on luxury handbags, designer shoes and sports cars, and
- Ban parking fees at English hospitals and reintroduce matrons.
Speaking in Doncaster, where one of the local MPs is Labour leader Ed Miliband, Mr Farage said Ukip was targeting blue-collar voters as well as its traditional Right-wing supporters.
He said the party was making major inroads into Labour support in the Midlands, the North and across Wales.
Mr Farage told supporters the party was not only a threat to the Tories but 'to the entire British political class'
He also said Labour’s handling of the child-abuse scandal in Rotherham was ‘one of the most shocking things I have seen in my lifetime in this country’.
The main battleground for the general election would be open-door immigration, he said, warning: ‘We are borderless Britain.’
Ukip immigration spokesman Steven Woolfe detailed proposals for an Australian-style, points-based migration system and a cap of 50,000 people a year allowed in.
An extra 2,500 front-line staff would also work at ports and airports under the proposals.
Mr Woolf told the conference: ‘If the Government can find the technology to listen in on all our phone calls it must be technically possible to identify UK citizens when they return home.
‘Ukip would make this happen. It would do so by introducing priority entry points at all borders for UK passport holders. One line for British passport holders. One line for the rest of the world.’
He said the UK Borders staff were the ‘visible protectors of our nation’ and added: ‘For too long these hard-working public servants have been put under too much pressure by successive governments.
'They need our support. So today I am announcing that, Ukip’s general election manifesto will include a provision to increase front-line staff and search teams at UK Border entry points by an 2,500 officers.’
At present there are separate lines at UK airports for non-EU and EU, including British, citizens.
Mr Farage said polls showed Ukip no longer posed a threat ‘just to the Conservative Party’.
He added: ‘In our target seats next year in the by-elections and in the general election, if you vote Ukip you will get Ukip.
'If we get this right and win enough seats in what is going to be a tight general election, we could even say to people, “Vote Ukip to hold the balance of power”.
‘And if we hold the balance of power there won’t just be a referendum on our EU membership, there will be a culture change in British politics.
'It will be a kind of politics that represents ordinary men and women.’
Mr Farage, 50, also revealed he would step down as Ukip leader within a decade and expects to be replaced by a woman.
He pledged to resign if the party gets no MPs at the election, and suggested former Tory MP Douglas Carswell could become
joint leader if he wins the by-election next month in Clacton, Essex, caused by his defection in August.
Mr Farage said: ‘If we don’t get any MPs I’ll be gone by midnight the next day. I think it is more likely that Ukip will be led by a woman next than any other party.’
