UK deputy PM loses to anti-EU rival in debate: survey

(LONDON) - Viewers declared the leader of Britain's main anti-EU party the winner in the second of two ill-tempered debates with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Wednesday after he claimed the EU wants its own "army and navy".

A YouGov survey published immediately after the hour-long debate showed 68 percent thought UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage had come out on top, compared to 27 percent who favoured Clegg.

Farage bolstered his "everyman" image by saying that the European Union's open borders had only served the rich, and had "left the white working class, effectively, as an underclass".

He called on voters to join his "People's Army" and leave Brussels, asserting that Britain would be out of the EU within 10 years and warning that the union was heading for a "very unpleasant" end, highlighting the rise of far-right parties across the continent.

"If you take away from people their ability through the ballot box to change their future because they have given away control of everything to somebody else, I'm afraid they tend to resort to unpleasant means," he said.

Clegg accused his opponent of scaremongering, but came out of the two debates trailing in public opinion polls ahead of key European Parliament elections in May.

The Liberal Democrat leader jumped on earlier comments made by Farage in which he praised aspects of Russian President Vladimir Putin's leadership style.

In response, the eurosceptic leader claimed that Clegg was "hell bent" on dragging Britain into foreign conflicts and that he would strive to prevent Britain becoming part of an "expansionist" EU foreign policy, saying that the EU wanted its own army and navy.

The two traded barbs over the amount of British laws dictated by Brussels, with Clegg accusing Farage of massively overstating its influence.

Recent polls show UKIP has moved ahead of the Lib Dems as Britain's third-most-popular political party.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader, wants to renegotiate London's relationship with Brussels and stage an in-or-out referendum on EU membership by the end of 2017 if he remains prime minister after next year's general election.

He is under pressure form the right wing of his party to counter the threat posed by Farage's party.

The Lib Dems are defending 12 of Britain's 73 seats in May's vote, while UKIP has nine. At the last European elections in 2009, UKIP came second and the Lib Dems fourth.

UKIP does not however have a single seat in the British parliament.