As the elections for the European Union’s assembly approach, the jitters among Britain’s established parties are almost palpable. A few days ago, a proposal was floated for Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to jointly call Nigel Farage’s United Kingdom Independent Party a racist organisation.

The reason is that suddenly, UKIP leads the polls to win the election scheduled for May 22 with the highest number of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Although it had been running second after Labour, UKIP’s rapid rise has sent tremors through the political establishment.

The European elections have never been taken very seriously, and hence turnout has been traditionally low. Extremist parties with strong but limited support tend to do relatively well because their members turn out to vote, while Labour and Tory supporters stay at home. The election is also seen as an opportunity to register a protest vote. Thus, UKIP has several MEPs in its ranks without ever having won a seat in the British Parliament.

This may change in the UK parliamentary elections due next year. Farage seems to be connecting with a growing number of British voters with his simple message of ‘Britain for the British’. Although he has been careful to couch this mantra in non-racist terms, many observers see his anti-immigrant views as disguised racism.

A recent advertising campaign that drew howls of criticism from liberals showed an index finger pointing to the viewer with the following message: “26 million people in Europe are looking for work. And whose jobs are they after?”

This refers to the ease with which members of the EU can look for work across Europe. With the Polish example before them, anti-EU campaigners can whip up the threat posed by citizens of new East European members to British jobs. In 2004, when the Labour government allowed Poles to work in Britain, it expected some 13,000 to take advantage of the new policy. Currently, there are around 580,000 Poles living in the UK.

This is the recent history Farage is evoking as he travels across the country, drumming up support. In a sense, UKIP is a one-man party as it has no other recognisable spokesperson. But Farage makes up for this vacuum by being constantly photographed, interviewed and written about. His affable, smiling face is everywhere, but mostly in pubs where he is seldom without a pint of beer in one hand.

Recently, he was accused by The Times of misreporting his expenses on his constituency expenses for the purpose of his EU allowance. A couple of years ago, this kind of fiddle disgraced dozens of British MPs, even sending a couple to jail. But Farage answered his critics by pointing out that unlike the rules in Westminster, the EU paid members a fixed allowance to do with as they liked.

Whatever the reality, the fact is that this dirt has not stuck to Farage. Politicians from mainstream parties complain that they are held to higher standards, but Farage seems to walk on water. To his loyal followers, he can do no wrong.

In part, this reflects a growing dissatisfaction with the British political class. Increasingly, voters see politicians as being distant from their concerns. Immigration, in particular, is the elephant in the room. As the economy remains stagnant despite the Chancellor’s bullish claims, many Britons fret about East Europeans entering their country under EU rules of free movement, and working for less than the average wage.

This is mostly why UKIP’s message resonates across the country. Farage is even reaching out to well-to-do landowners and farmers in the countryside who were traditionally Conservative supporters. But as David Cameron and the Tories have moved to capture the centre from Labour, their traditional base has been left behind, feeling marginalised, and their concerns and views ignored by the party.

And many of Labour’s urban, working class supporters have also felt the allure of UKIP’s message. So clearly, Farage is tapping into a groundswell of unease with the direction Britain is embarked on. While the UKIP leader was earlier dismissed as a buffoon by Cameron, the fact is that he poses a very real threat to established parties.

Nobody among Britain’s frontline parties is more eloquently pro-EU than Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats. So when he challenged Farage to a televised debate on the question of UK’s membership of the Union, he was widely expected to wipe the floor with the UKIP upstart. In the event, he lost both debates, according to opinion polls.

The point Farage has made very successfully is that when Britain joined the EU, citizens were not told that by doing so, they were surrendering their sovereignty to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. Over the years, a host of EU rules and regulations have come to gain a stranglehold over commercial, legal and personal matters. From human rights to health and safety, Britons feel their own traditions and laws are being superseded.

To counter this impression, Clegg and other pro-EU politicians point to the advantages of membership. But to hardcore UKIP supporters, Britain would be better off outside the Union. Cameron has promised a referendum on membership in 2017, but it is not at all certain that he will win a second term.

What is certain is that Farage will keep the item on the national agenda.