With elections to the European Parliament coming on May 22, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has surged into first place in a YouGov poll taken for the Sunday Times, with 31 percent support. As a result, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron is facing pressure from within his party to take a tougher line with the EU. Breitbart highlights the Times’ subscription-only report:

The Times (£) reports: 

The prime minister was struggling to contain a growing Eurosceptic tide last night as he faced calls from Conservative MPs and the public to take a tougher line with Brussels to counter the UKIP threat.

Senior Tory backbenchers disclosed that they would visit Downing Street after the vote on May 22 to demand that Cameron outline much more extensive plans for the repatriation of powers from Brussels.

But Cameron will put himself on collision course with his party after privately dismissing their concerns and vowing not to give an inch — even if the Tories are humiliated in the European elections.

Tory jitters will be stoked by today’s YouGov poll for The Sunday Times on the EU elections, which puts UKIP in the lead for the first time, with the Conservatives trailing a distant third.

Despite a week of controversy, Nigel Farage’s party has risen to 31%, three points clear of Labour, with the Tories languishing on a lacklustre 19 points.

In another blow to the prime minister, the former Tory donor now backing UKIP has indicated he will bankroll the party at the next general election — boosting Farage’s chances of winning seats at Westminster for the first time.

The UKIP has been under intense media attack, for many of the same reasons as the US Tea Party. The British establishment, including Cameron, fears “radical” action to bring power back home to London and out of the hands of unelected Bureaucrats in Brussels who are able to administer the economies and politics of member states without much concern for the interests or feelings of the hoi poloi.

Lurking beneath the surface is the issue of Muslim immigration into Europe, and the resulting tensions as Muslims demand to have their own zones of Sharia law compliance, and local elites respond with dhimmitude, motivated by a combination of fear and liberal guilt.

The UKIP tries to avoid any direct confrontation with the issue of Muslim immigration, in contrast to the GB Liberty Party, whose leader was just arrested over the weekend for the crime of reading aloud a passage from Churchill on Muslim influence on politics as observed in Sudan.

Clearly, a populist revolt against the EU is building in Britain. The elections for the EU Parliament should be very interesting, indeed.