UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage outlines his plans to cause a “political earthquake” at next year’s European elections THIS week UKIP has announced the list of candidates who will be fighting to win the European elections in 2014.

I AM delighted to lead the South East list and have on my team such a high calibre group of people.

Because whilst the Westminster village is still obsessing that the next election is in 2015, in less than eight months time I plan for UKIP to cause a political earthquake in British politics.

Not only do I want to win the European elections, but on the same day there are thousands of local council seats being fought, including in Oxford.

The Tories and Labour are desperately keen to shoot UKIP’s fox, even if it means colluding with each other to try to squeeze UKIP out of the debate.

That is why UKIP intends to turn the elections into the referendum on our EU membership which David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband are so terrified to offer.

The call for a referendum on our EU membership, so that we may finally have our say, is being demanded by people from all walks of life.

Our candidates in the South East come from different backgrounds, with different experiences and talents, but are united in our goal of independence from Brussels.

Back when I was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999, very few people ever read about what happened in Brussels, or just how much of our lives was being affected by regulations and directives passed by people the average person had never even heard of, let alone had a chance to vote for.

But now, as we head into this exciting campaign, I am joined by people who can’t wait to hit the streets, hold meetings in town halls and tell people of our positive message.

Second on the list is Janice Atkinson, a political and social commentator for the Daily Express, the Huffington Post and formerly for the Daily Mail.

In business, she provides trade, not aid, for the third world via gotradelive.com and is welfare policy advisor to UKIP.

She believes in enabling women, but not via quotas and tokenism.

She was the Daily Mail’s Quentin Letts’ Woman of the Year in 2011 when he said she is “everything that Harriet Harman is not”.

We are both joined by UKIP borough councillor and group leader at Waverley Borough Council in Surrey, Diane James, who made headlines when she stood for UKIP in the Eastleigh by-election in February 2013, narrowly missing out on becoming UKIP’s first MP.

Her experience in business makes her an ideal candidate to defend residents of the South East from unnecessary and unwanted EU regulation and bureaucracy.

UKIP is the only party serious about quitting the EU and getting back control of our country from Brussels.

Promises of referenda in 2017 are meaningless and, when considered next to David Cameron’s “cast iron pledge” in 2010, nothing short of an insult to the people.

But if UKIP win the European elections then watch as Ed Miliband promises a referendum in the run up to the 2015 general election.

They both will promise what they can to stop UKIP speaking out on behalf of the millions of people who are being ignored by their cosy consensus.

But if we win these elections then try as they might, the pro Independence, positive UKIP message will be impossible to ignore.