22nd May 20014

The latest opinion survey suggests UKIP will top the polls in Britain in today’s elections to the European Parliament.

Research by YouGov conducted last night predicted that UKIP, the strongly pro-fracking party, would win 27% of the vote, giving it 21-23 seats. The party currently holds nine seats in the European Parliament.

The Greens, the only party which opposed fracking, was expected to make significant gains. The latest prediction put it on 10% of the vote with 3-6 seats. The Greens are polling at their highest level since 1989. They currently have two members and yesterday leader Natalie Bennett predicted the party would beat the Liberal Democrats.

Peter Kelner, President of YouGov,  said: “The battle for fourth place is too close to call with certainty; but when the votes are counted on Sunday night, the performance of the Greens may be one to watch.”

Voting for the European Parliament uses a proportional allocation of seats in each region so YouGov says the final distribution in some regions is hard to predict.

YouGov latest poll results

UKIP 27%  and 21-23 seats

Labour 26% and 21-25 seats

Conservatives 22% and 14-17 seats

Greens 10% and 3-6 seats

Lib Dems 9% and 2-3 seats