Question: Are the polls right? How high do you think your vote can go on Thursday in terms of the share of the vote?

Nigel Farage: I think the polls are right. I think where YouGov have got the polls right is that they are only expecting this in terms of those that are certain to vote.

We know that last time the turnout was 24 per cent. On these polls, these figures are showing a certain turnout of 40 per cent, which I'm cynical about. So it could be that if the turnout is not as high as 40 per cent, that the voters who want to vote UKIP do so out of conviction, that we could do even better than the polls are showing at the moment.

Question: Are you willing to make any predictions as to what that might be?

Nigel Farage: I just don't know. It is quite difficult to make predictions like that given that we are way ahead of where we dreamt we were going to be four or five weeks ago.

But I do think that 20 per cent-plus is feasible, I do think that we will beat the Liberal Democrats across the nation and I think there are one or two regions in which we stand a very strong chance of beating Labour.

Question: If this is dreamland for you in terms of where you thought you would be, do you accept that it is still very much a minority of the public who want to withdraw from the EU?

Nigel Farage: Not at all. That is quite wrong and I have in front of me a YouGov poll of 2,000 people taken on the 26th and 28th of May that asks the stark question - do you want to get in or stay out of the EU? Forty eight [per cent] say get out and 36 stay in with 16 don't know. So there is a clear majority that wants to leave full stop.

But when you put to them the UKIP manifesto, which is we wish to divorce ourselves from the political structures and renegotiate free trade, then on that survey we had 54 per cent wanting to get out, with only 31 per cent staying in.

So there is now an overwhelming majority of people who want trade with Europe, who want friendship with Europe, but do not want to be governed from Europe.

Question: But you and Michael Howard both make it clear that the Tories don't want to leave the EU altogether, so do you accept that when you add the Tories' votes with the Lib Dems and Labour they are in an overwhelming majority?

Nigel Farage: Despite the fact that many agree, not everybody yet sees it as being the single most important political issue. As and when they do we are going to see a very substantial realignment in British politics. But, whilst I accept your point, things are very different now than the way they were four or five months ago.

There is an increasing, a growing number of people who are beginning to put this at or very near the top of their own political agenda.

Question: Do you think you can translate this level of support into the general election?

Nigel Farage: It is easier in a European election because there isn't the argument of a wasted vote. In a general election [we hear] 'well we agree with UKIP, you are very principled, you are spot on chaps, but we won't vote for you because you have got no chance of winning'. And that argument is very powerful.

In European elections under a PR system, as we showed last time, we can make an impact.

I honestly don't know what will happen between now and the general election. A lot of that will of course depend on whether Mr Blair signs the constitution in a week's time and whether we have a referendum. And on what happens to the Conservative Party.

Question: What do you think is going to happen to the Conservative Party?

Nigel Farage: I really don't know. I have felt myself for 10 years that the Conservative Party needs to split. In actual fact that split is much closer than it has been for a very long time.

Question: How much of a boost has Robert Kilroy-Silk's candidature been in terms of his media profile?

Nigel Farage: Robert Kilroy-Silk would not have come to the party if we hadn't had our ducks in a row in the first place. We had the campaign organised, we had it structured and we were showing 10 per cent in our private polls and YouGov before Robert came along.

But given that we had good structure, given that we had some good campaign slogans, given that we had the literature, the posters, the billboards and everything in place, once Robert came, yes, it has given us a tremendous boost.

He is the only recognisable public figure standing in the European elections.

Question: Including George Galloway?

Nigel Farage: "Gorgeous George" may run him a close second. But no, even George Galloway is nowhere near as well known as Robert Kilroy-Silk is.

Question: Given his ability to get access to the airwaves then, should he be party leader?

Nigel Farage: I think Roger Knapman has done an excellent job as party leader. He has transformed UKIP. We have doubled party membership in a year. We have put together a £2 million campaign.

All of those things were done under the leadership of Roger. I very much expect to see Roger on the television and the radio on Sunday night as the man that has headed the party that has recorded the most remarkable result in British politics.

How much longer Roger wants to go on with that job is a matter entirely for him. But I think the important point to make is that Roger has done a very good job.

Question: You are very much a single issue party. If the Tories were to come round completely to your position on Europe would you disband or merge with them?

Nigel Farage: Good point. What if the Liberal Democrats did, what if the Labour Party did? After all the Labour Party had this position 20 years ago.

If one of the major parties advocated our position, then at the next general election we would seek to ally and work with that party on the basis that is has always got to be the interests of your country before the interests of your party.

Whether we would disband I very much doubt. Because we would find it difficult to trust the political class sufficiently, ie. they might say it now but whether they would stick to that position is quite another matter.

But we would not field candidates if one or more of the major parties said they wanted to leave the EU and then to renegotiate a free trade agreement.

Question: Are you pleased that through your tough stance on Europe and immigration UKIP seems to be drowning out the BNP in these elections?

Nigel Farage: I think we are fulfilling a very valuable role. The BNP was attempting to re-brand itself and re-sell itself. But I think that many were viewing the BNP as being perhaps a very sinister element.

Effectively the UKIP has seen off that BNP challenge, that BNP attempt to move into the ground of political respectability, I say attempt because it probable wasn't genuine anyway. I think that many people should be thankful for what we have done.

Question: What do you see as the main differences between yourself and the BNP?

Nigel Farage: They are absolutely fundamental at every level. There is the overarching principle in UKIP that we are a non-racist, non-sectarian political party. All of our candidates and all of our party officers up and down the land always have to sign a declaration to say that they have never been a member of extremist or any violent political group.

I think when you compare that to the top brass in the BNP who have an alarming number of people with violent criminal records, that that is an absolutely fundamental difference.

But if you move away from that and move on to issues and policies, the BNP doesn't even want a free trade deal with Europe. They don't even want co-operation with Europe, the thing which we want. Frankly there is no point going through the rest but the differences are absolutely fundamental.

Question: Your candidates make no secret of their lack of respect for the European parliament. Would the public not be better off voting for constructive critics?

Nigel Farage: That is completely up to the public. There is a very simple choice. There are Labour, Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Green candidates in this election all of whom want to be in the EU, all of whom see the European parliament as valuable, all of whom are telling you that 'we are going to reform it and we are going to change it'.

If that is what you want as a member of the public please vote with one of those four. If however, you believe that we should be an independent country, that we should co-operate, do all the things that European neighbours do, but not be subject to European law, then vote for the UK Independence Party.

We are not going to Brussels and Strasbourg with any pretence that we are going to reform it and change it, we are not. The model is far too advanced and far too rotten as far as we are concerned to be reformed. But what we can do is we can use the knowledge, we can the use the information that we get in our role in the European parliament to come back and tell the British people what it is really all about.

We have been doing that for the last five years and we have made the argument that we should leave the EU now a respectable political argument.