A rising groundswell of anti-Brussels opinion will force Britain to leave the European Union within five years, the West Midlands' first United Kingdom Independence Party MEP has predicted. Mike Nattrass, who was elected on June 10, said his experience so far at the European Parliament had reinforced his fears of a bureaucratic monster intent on destroying the British way of life. Mr Nattrass warned UKIP's electoral success across the country should act as a wake-up call to mainstream political parties. But he admitted that both Labour and the Conservatives appeared to be ignoring the upsurge in anti-EU sentiment in the hope that it was a "one-off occurrence". Mr Nattrass, a Birmingham businessman and deputy leader of the UKIP, spoke of an uprising of scepticism. UKIP has joined the Independence and Democracy Group in the EU Parliament, consisting of more than 40 MEPs whose views range from outright withdrawal from the EU to radical reform of the union. It is the fourth largest grouping in the Parliament and includes MEPs from France, Poland, Greece, Holland, Denmark and the Czech Republic. UKIP claims that only ten per cent of UK trade is with EU partners. It wants Britain to leave Europe but to sign a trading agreement with the EU. Mr Nattrass, who claimed 70 per cent of UK law was decided by the EU, said: "It is ridiculous that we should be tied by all these regulations when most of our products are going to the home market and other parts of the country. "We should be looking at the Far East and China and India because that's where tomorrow's trade will come from." A passionate, outspoken man, Mr Nattrass insisted he used to be shy and would cross the street to avoid talking to people. All of that changed, he said, when as a chartered surveyor he was told to stop measuring in feet and inches and use the metric system instead. He said: "I believe in my country. So many generations have fought to keep this country free and independent that I feel an obligation to them." He insisted the UKIP was not an extremist organisation, although the language of some of its supporters was far from politically correct. Party leader Nigel Farage, addressing a French anti-EU Constitution group, said when "the Frogs" vote against the constitution it would be the first time the French have come to the rescue of the British, a remark greeted with guffaws of laughter by French MEPs, according to Mr Nattrass. Yorkshire UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom sent liberal commentators into apoplexy when he said he had joined the EU women's committee to "see if they clean behind the fridge" - a harmless joke taken the wrong way in Brussels, according to Mr Nattrass. Mr Nattrass added: "We are not right wing. We want more spent on health, education and social services. We were against going into Iraq without the support of the UN." UKIP's MEPs have a five-year term until the next Euroelections in 2009. By then, if Mr Nattrass is to be believed, Britain will be negotiating withdrawal. He said: "If other countries want to continue in the EU, then that's their affair. I don't wish the EU any disaster, I just want us out of it. "The Tories will go down with the ship. "The Conservative Party has lost its way and its chance." A Department of Trade and Industry spokesman said that in 2003 the UK trade to the expanded EU was worth £109 billion or 58.5 per cent of Britain's total trade. For the period January to June this year the figure was £53 billion or 58.7 per cent of the total. | 
