Nigel Farage says he will do dry January for his 'unpredictable' New Year's resolution

'Next time you catch me on the campaign trail in a pub, I shall have a glass of orange juice in my hand'

Ukip leader Nigel Farage attends the meet of the Old Surrey Burstow and West Kent Hunt at Chiddingstone Castle for 2014's Boxing Day hunt (Reuters)

While David Cameron promised more austerity and Ed Miliband said he would bring the economic recovery to people’s tables, Nigel Farage has revealed his own New Year’s resolution – to do dry January.

Writing for The Independent, the Ukip leader said that any differences between the video messages from Mr Cameron, Mr Miliband and the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg were “barely noticeable”, and that “there wasn’t a single, unscripted, unpredictable message from any one of them”.

“As for me? You’re going to love this one,” Mr Farage said. “My New Year's Resolution is... no beer in January!

“The next time you catch me on the campaign trail in a pub, I shall have a glass of orange juice in my hand. How's that for unpredictable?”

Mr Farage’s comments came as The Independent’s end-of-year poll of polls showed Ukip to be the big winner in politics for 2014.

The findings carried grim news for what Mr Farage calls the “same old” parties – with the Conservatives on 30 per cent (down three points since December 2013, Labour on 32 per cent (down six) and the Liberal Democrats unchanged on 10 per cent.

Their combined unpopularity fuelled a five percentage point poll increase for Ukip, up to 15 per cent, as well as seeing the Green vote more than double up to seven per cent.

Also in his column today, Mr Farage had a subtle word for the party’s MP Douglas Carswell, who warned members against “the mistake of blaming foreigners” and an “absurd” dislike of foreigners in an article in the Mail on Sunday.

Referencing new figures suggesting there are now 252,000 Romanians and Bulgarians living in Britain, Mr Farage wrote: “Yes, we want our country back… We want proper border controls, not because we dislike foreigners, but because making sure Britain can actually cater for its population is the sensible, sustainable, and ethical thing to do.”

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