Sir John blasts ‘sheer nastiness’ of Ukip as Farage tipped for win

Sir John said that Ukip was “profoundly un-British in every way” because of their views and voters were only backing them out of frustration with the economy.

Mr Farage said he is “confident” that Mark Reckless will become Ukip’s second MP after Thursday’s Rochester and Strood by-election.

Mr Reckless defected from the Tories to Ukip and hopes to echo the victory of Douglas Carswell, who won the Clacton seat in a landslide for his new party last month.

Sir John drew a distinction between Ukip’s leadership and those who had supported the party, saying: “I think many of the people who are voting for them are doing so out of frustration at the ongoing difficulties of the recession, the belief that they are losing out and falling behind.

In a strongly-worded attack on Ukip, he said “the policies of Ukip, the direction of Ukip, is, it seems to me, profoundly un-British in every way”.

He said: “They are anti-everything. They are anti-politics, they are anti-foreigner, they are anti-immigrant, they are anti-aid. I don’t know what they are for, we know what they are against. That’s the negativity of the four-ale bar, that’s not the way to get into Parliament and not the way to run a country.”

He said the generosity shown by the British people in responding to the Ebola appeal and Children in Need was a “counterpoint” to Ukip’s “negativity”.

“What a counterpoint that is to the negativity and sheer nastiness of much of what Ukip stands for,” he said.

Ukip leader Mr Farage said that he was “confident but not complacent” that Mr Reckless would win, partly on the back of a collapse in the Labour vote in the seat.

“We are smashing the Labour vote to pieces. This is not a straight fight between Ukip and the Tories,” he said.

David Cameron has warned that a Ukip win would put the country at greater risk of “insecurity and instability in our economy”.

The Prime Minister warned voters in the Kent constituency that they risk becoming another notch on the bedpost of Mr Farage’s party, who would celebrate victory with “a pint in the pub” but would not represent local people as well as Tory candidate Kelly Tolhurst.

Meanwhile, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker should be investigated over allegations he encouraged tax avoidance, according to senior Tories. Mr Juncker, who denies wrongdoing, came under pressure at the G20 summit in Australia over allegations that he encouraged companies to minimise their bills by taking advantage of Luxembourg’s rock-bottom tax rates while he was finance minister and prime minister of the Duchy.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps have backed the need for an investigation into the issue.

Mr Duncan Smith said he did not know if the matters were true or false but said the European Commission needed to show it had “no fear of investigating their own”.

He did not name or criticise Mr Juncker directly when asked about the issue on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics.

But he said: “This is a real moment for the European Union, for the commission, to show that it has the capacity and the determination to investigate its own and so if there is an issue, if there is some serious issue about a conflict and at one time one thing is being said and at another thing is being done, then these things need to be investigated and made public.”

* Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said he is optimistic European leaders will find a solution on freedom of movement within the EU, noting privately he had heard officials from across the continent recognise there is an issue. On the need for more control over freedom of movement within the European Union, Mr Duncan Smith said most people would agree with Sir John.

He described recent research, which suggested European migrants made a £20 billion contribution to the UK between 2001 and 2011, as a “silly report”.