UK Independence Party launch election manifesto

The UK Independence Party have launched their manifesto with a call to withdraw from the European Union.

They are fielding 550 candidates in a bid to win their first MP.

UKIP say they want to transfer two million public sector jobs to the private sector, cut taxes and get rid of National Insurance altogether.

Leader Lord Pearson said without withdrawing from the EU the UK would be unable to tackle "the deplorable and very worrying state of our economy".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that EU membership cost the country "colossal figures on the economic side", with some estimates suggesting a figure of up to £120bn a year.

Flat tax

Lord Pearson said his party would not run for Westminster seats against other candidates that are genuinely Eurosceptic, and put up billboards urging people to vote for them.

The BBC's Brian Wheeler, at the manifesto launch, said that meant standing aside in contests against six Tories, one Labour MP, and two Independents.

In Stroud, held by Labour's David Drew at the last election, the UKIP candidate has in his election address asked people to vote for Mr Drew if possible.

The UKIP leader said he would not feel guilty about preventing the election of a a Conservative government because David Cameron as prime minister would mean "five more years of integration" into Europe.

Deputy leader David Campbell Bannerman denied that UKIP was a "single issue party" but said that Europe was "central to this domestic election".

Mr Campbell Bannerman told the BBC: "We have policies in all areas, including animal welfare, pubs etc, right across the board - and that's our manifesto being launched today."

He told a press conference that the UK could establish a free trade area with the Commonwealth to establish links with "our kith and kin".

The party's campaign slogan in its bid for a Westminster breakthrough is "Straight Talking".

They promise a new flat tax at 31%.

UKIP also want a five year freeze on new immigrants settling in Britain and a ban on wearing the burka in public buildings and certain private buildings, and boot camps for young offenders.

The party's former leader Nigel Farage is standing in Buckingham against the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.

Mr Farage said the election campaign so far had been a "piddling irrelevance" and the mainstream parties had not addressed the reality of the UK's economic problems.

"It really is time for some straight talking," he added.

"We are skint. We need some massive cutbacks in the public sector.

"We can't have our own immigration and asylum policy if we remain members of this European Union."

In the 2009 European Parliament elections they beat Labour to second place, winning 13 seats, but UKIP expelled MEP Nikki Sinclaire in March after she refused to be part of its multi-national group.