Britain's anti-EU leader won't stand in parliamentary vote

(LONDON) - Nigel Farage, leader of the Brussels-bashing UK Independence Party, said Wednesday he will not contest a parliamentary seat freed by the resignation of a lawmaker.

Farage said that he wanted to focus on the European parliamentary elections in May and that he had no links with the constituency in Newark, central England.

"I don't want to do anything that deflects from the European election campaign, so I am not going to stand in this by-election," Farage told BBC radio.

"I would just look like an opportunist and I don't think that would work."

The Newark seat was vacated by former Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, who resigned on Tuesday after facing a six-month ban from parliament over a lobbying scandal, and a by-election to replace him is expected in early June.

UKIP has yet to win a single seat in Britain's parliament.

But its populist anti-EU, anti-immigration message -- plus Farage's beer-swilling, cigarette-puffing persona -- is making it a growing threat to Prime Minister David Cameron's centre-right Conservatives.

A new poll on Wednesday put UKIP in first place in the European parliament elections on May 22.

Farage's party was on 38 percent, ahead of the main opposition Labour Party on 27 percent, the Conservatives on 18 percent and the Liberal Democrats of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on eight percent in the poll by ComRes for ITV television.

The survey also found 32 percent of people thought UKIP racist, while 33 percent thought it was more honest than other parties.

A YouGov poll on Sunday also had UKIP first on 31 percent, Labour on 28 percent, the Conservatives on 19 percent and the Lib Dems on nine percent.

In an interview with AFP on Monday, Farage said there was still work to do.

"I always wanted a political earthquake, the polls are enormously encouraging but I am not going to delude myself. There is far more work to be done but we are on our way," he said.

British media were divided on the decision by Farage, a former commodities trader who survived testicular cancer in his 20s and a plane crash during the 2010 general election.

Some political commentators said he had "bottled it" and been afraid to stand, but others said he would have struggled to overturn a large Conservative majority of 16,000 votes at the last election.

The party's success reflects a wider scepticism in Britain about its place in the European Union.

Cameron has promised to renegotiate the terms of Britain's membership then hold an in-out referendum in 2017, provided that he is returned to office in the next general election in May 2015.