UKIP delays name change

The UK Independence Party has delayed a decision on whether it will change its name and logo.

Earlier on Monday, party leader Nigel Farage said the move could help win over Conservatives.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Farage said he was confident a change of name would help his party win seats in local elections and gain a foothold in the Commons.

The ruling executive of UKIP - which campaigns on an anti-Brussels platform - was expected to approve plans to rename itself the Independence Party for the local elections on May 3.

But speaking later Farage said there would be a "full postal ballot" of all party members, and that there would be consultation before any change went ahead.

The executive appeared to have put the breaks on the plans Farage had floated in the media earlier in the day.

The UKIP leader told the paper it was time to campaign on more than simply immigration and withdrawal from the European Union.

The party needed to address wider themes of national and local independence, deregulation and tax cuts, Farage said.

These arguments had been "abandoned by David Cameron", he said.

"We believe in national independence. But we also want to see a much greater degree of independence at local level, believing that one of the worst things that the Tories did in the 1980s was to emasculate local government."

And he said Cameron's decision to "abandon" traditional Tory territory on tax and Europe had been a gift.

"Cameron has a massive split in his party between the parliamentary party and the party in the country," he said.

"We believe that Cameron's idea that you pay for tax cuts out of economic growth is getting things completely the wrong way round."

The name change was, Farage said, "the first step to get people's perceptions of the party to change".

UKIP hopes to more than double its number of candidates at the local elections in a long-term strategy aimed at building local support and winning seats in parliament.