Nigel Farage is softening rhetoric on immigration. Photo: Reuters

Britain’s anti-EU UK Independence Party sought to boost flagging support ahead of an election in three weeks’ time by softening its rhetoric on immigration, showcasing a possible future leader, and ranging beyond its core policies yesterday.

Though unlikely to win many seats, Ukip matters in what is shaping up to be Britain’s closest election since the 1970s because it siphons support from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party, a phenomenon that threatens to distort the outcome of the knife-edge ballot.

Unveiling its manifesto before the May 7 election in which it hopes to increase its tally of parliamentary seats from two to around 10, Ukip tried to broaden its appeal by unveiling left and right-wing policies it said had been properly costed.

Nigel Farage, Ukip’s leader, reassured core supporters, however, that the party’s two flagship policies – of leaving the European Union after a referendum and of sharply cutting immigration – remained intact.

“We want to be good neighbours with our European friends but we desperately seek a referendum so that we can set this country free from political union,” Farage told an audience gathered at a hotel in Essex, southern England.

“We want our country back.”

We want our country back

But the tone and the language he and other party officials used on immigration was more nuanced than usual and Ukip was keener to talk about other new policies outside its traditional comfort zone to try to cast itself as a serious potential partner in government.

Ukip’s support has been on the wane this year. In 2014, it won European elections in Britain and poached two of Cameron’s lawmakers. In 2015, its support has fallen from 23 per cent in one opinion poll in January to as low as 12 per cent this month.

Often criticised for being a one-man band fronted by Farage, its media-savvy leader, Ukip used yesterday’s policy launch to showcase a possible successor, Suzanne Evans, the party’s deputy chairman and the author of its manifesto.

Farage has dominated such events in the past, but on this occasion made brief opening remarks before handing over to Evans who gave a longer and more detailed presentation which he lauded.

Ukip has said it would support Cameron’s party on an issue-by-issue basis if the Conservatives form a minority government and Evans set out policies on everything from tax, foreign aid and spending cuts to higher defence spending.