"Farage attacks backfire on Labour and Tories"

Attacks have confirmed Ukip leader as anti-establishment candidate, according to telephone polling and focus groups



Labour and Conservative polling is showing that attacks claiming Nigel Farage is a racist have backfired since voters do not regard him as such and see the assaults as a sign members of the political establishment are ganging up to undermine him.

The apparent backlash is coming to both parties from telephone polling and focus groups, which say that the attacks have raised Farage's profile and confirmed him as the anti-establishment candidate. It does not tally with published opinion polls that show the Ukip lead in the European elections narrowing slightly.

One source said: "Calling people names does not work. It confirms the old politics."

The findings on the penultimate day of campaigning before Thursday's European and local elections are especially acute for the Labour party, which has been locked in an internal battle about how aggressively to attack Farage. Ed Miliband has studiously not called him a racist and tried instead to offer policy solutions to the issues driving the Ukip vote. Other strategists within the party are arguing that only a more direct attack will bear fruit with traditional Labour voters.

Farage has something that the other leaders lack: the ability to reach out and touch the man in the street.

Osborne says: stop abusing Ukip supporters – a bit late George

By Janet Daley

In a speech today, George Osborne will apparently tell business leaders that "It's no good abusing people who were once voting Conservative and are now tempted to vote Ukip." Really? You mean the man in charge (so they say) of the Tory campaign strategy actually understands that insulting people who used to be your supporters but now feel so aggrieved they are tempted to vote for somebody else is a mistake? Who knew?

And there was me thinking that the entire anti-Ukip press barrage which went so far as to trawl the social media records of every Ukip candidate and public supporter was, if not orchestrated, at least enthusiastically endorsed by the Conservative leadership. When exactly did it occur to Mr Osborne that the dedicated army of researchers who were gleefully digging up all those embarrassing tweets by obscure Ukippers – and splashing them on the front pages of newspapers – were, in fact, only adding to the impression of a political establishment out to extinguish the voice of the people? Well, it's too late now. That campaign has done what would have been utterly beyond the capability of Ukip's own amateurish, content-less, incoherent presentation: it has permanently installed the idea that the political class are a united vindictive force which regards the anxieties and concerns of a large proportion of voters with contempt.

The people will not forget this lesson. Even when they return to the fold of the mainstream parties – as I have no doubt they will – in the general election, they will recall this vendetta, and it will leave a bitter suspicion about how seriously their opinions are taken by the governing elite.