The Times 15th March 2014 A Polish man standing as a council candidate for Ukip says his party is the natural home for Eastern Europeans. Przemek Skwirczynski, a banker who has lived in Britain since 1999, used to be a Tory supporter but said that he had become disillusioned with the party. He joined Ukip and will stand as a candidate in the London borough of Croydon at the local elections in May. The party may not seem the obvious choice for somebody who grew up in the city of Lódz, given Ukip’s opposition to the large-scale migration from Eastern Europe. However, Mr Skwirczynski, 31, said that Poles were naturally right-leaning due to their experience of communism. Ukip, he said, was now “the true Conservative party”. The former Wellington College pupil, who won a scholarship to study A levels in Britain in 1999, said that he was drawn to Ukip for its libertarian streak. When it comes to migration, he sounds far more liberal than the party’s big-hitters. “If you think of the industry I work in, or the city I live in, the only reason they are great is because of immigration,” he said. “You couldn’t have a city like London if you shut off the borders.” Instead of unlimited migration from EU states, he would opt for a points-based system that would allow in skilled workers according to need. Mr Skwirczynski blames Ed Miliband, the son of Polish refugees, for allowing anti-Polish sentiments to enter mainstream politics, citing a 2011 interview in which the Labour leader said that his party “got it wrong” on the numbers of migrants who came from Poland. His group, Friends of Poland in Ukip, was angered in January when David Cameron singled out Poles when attacking EU rules that allow migrant workers’ families to receive child benefit even when the children live abroad. He dismissed the idea that Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, was encouraging xenophobia when he spoke last month to warn that parts of Britain had become “unrecognisable”. He also brushed off reports that a comedian at a conference dinner made a series of jokes about foreigners, including one aimed at Poles. Mr Skwirczynski insisted that there was nothing more than the odd bad egg in the party. The 600,000 or so Poles in the UK are eligible to vote in European and local elections. A campaign has sprung up to encourage migrants to use their vote to oppose the surge of Euroscepticism, telling them: “This may be your last chance to vote in Britain.” A “poll of Poles” conducted by The Sunday Times last month found that 10 per cent of Polish citizens would vote for Ukip in the European elections, putting the party just 5 per cent behind the Conservatives. Mr Farage was considered the second-strongest party leader behind Mr Miliband. Mr Skwirczynski said that the Tories had made a mistake in alienating Poles and urged his compatriots to join Ukip. “They should be natural Conservative voters given their allergy to communism,” he said. “Unlike many other nationalities, Poles come here to achieve something by running their own business or progress their career. Labour is not really an obvious choice for them. But the Conservatives’ loss is Ukip’s gain.”
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 13:18:19 +0000
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