UKIP offers right-wing platform

New leader Nigel Farage has said his UK Independence Party is "now the real party of opposition".

Speaking at the party's annual conference in Telford on Saturday, the MEP claimed the previous week's Conservative conference had shown that David Cameron has signed the Tories up to a "social democratic consensus".

Following his own recent election, Farage said UKIP was offering a genuine right-wing platform of tax cuts, immigration controls and academic selection in schools.

However he also unveiled an overhaul of the party's organisational structures in a bid to improve its campaigning capacity.

"This week's Conservative conference in Bournemouth confirms that there are now three social democrat parties in the UK," he said.

"The UK Independence Party is now the only real opposition to the consensus. This is not just on the European Union and immigration, we are now a broadly based, fully fledged political party.

"Just this week we have launched a flat tax policy, which follows last month's launch of our education policy. We are the only party who are in favour of tax cuts to stimulate the economy and of selection in schools.

"We are the party that says what the majority of people in Britain think. The challenge for UKIP is to become both professional and disciplined enough to fill the enormous vacuum that exists."