Why I voted for UKIP
Following the UK Independence Party's victory in the European elections, some politicians have called it a 'protest vote'.
But UKIP leader Nigel Farage disagrees claiming the result is an "earthquake" in British politics.
He says that his party is a truly national force and has "momentum" behind it.
Here, BBC News website readers explain why they decided for UKIP.
Deborah Baldwin, South Yorkshire
I voted UKIP in the European elections this time, and yes, mine was a protest vote!
I did this because although I don't necessarily want out of Europe, I think Britain needs more control in the decisions made, especially when they affect our country.
I'm just your average working-class voter, but from where I stand, immigration is one of our biggest problems.
Why can't we rule that only professional people with a job to start will be allowed into the country ?
Why can't we make it that immigrants only get out of the benefit system what they have put in?
I think measures like these would make our country less desirable to the masses, yet wouldn't deter genuine people who want to come here to work and improve their lifestyle, whilst also being a valuable asset to our workforce.
Therefore, the people that are coming here just to abuse our system would have to look elsewhere - mass immigration would be a thing of the past, and there would be more places in our schools for our children.
My son works in Dubai but before he could live there he had to get a job - he is not able to use their welfare like immigrants can in this country.
If one party were to tell me that they were going to do, or work towards any of these policies, then they would get my vote.
Rob Smith, Buckinghamshire
I am a lifelong Labour supporter but voted UKIP in the European election because it was a way to encourage the main parties to offer an in or out vote on Europe.
Strangely if offered this I would vote to stay in, hence opposing UKIP's position.
Underlying this is the need to create a sense that I am, as a British citizen, engaged and have to some degree control through my vote on the decision-making of the government elected in Britain.
At present my feeling is any vote is over-ridden by the European parliament. This for me is about maintaining British culture. I want my children to see the benefits of what I had growing up, but the culture is being eroded.
Economically I believe in Europe, and there are some benefits to immigration.
However, the rewards of this are too heavily weighted in favour of the wealthiest, most powerful and the bosses.
There is an increasing and massive disconnect from the hard-working people in this country who have put this country back on the road to recovery.
If the politicians are so convinced we should stay in Europe they should have the confidence to put it to the people so that the issue can generate discussion.
I will wait and see if I will vote UKIP again in next year's general election.
Mark Renaud, Lancashire
As a 16-year-old when the Common Market referendum was held I have never had a say in our European status.
I have voted Tory in every election from 1979 to 2010 but in the recent police commissioners' election, local and euro elections I have voted UKIP as the party most likely to force a referendum.
Politicians don't give a straight answer to a straight question - they have clever answers in double-speak.
Prior to the 1970s, politicians were successful businessmen coming towards the end of their lives as public servants and had a sense of public duty.
Now you get career-politicians who went to top universities - you get a sense of this with Cameron and Miliband and Clegg to an extent.
But with Farage, he seems to be an ordinary geezer that you can have a conversation with in the pub, and have a good debate.
I would like to return to voting Tory as they stand for the things I believe in but until we get a referendum I will give my vote to the party who gives me the greatest confidence that they will put this most important issue to the vote.
I am totally against the EU and how it has helped reshape Britain, so I voted UKIP.
Why? Because of the uncontrolled immigration that is depressing the working-class standard of living in this country.
60% of the workforce at my place of work is Polish, and we are currently taking over a business in London where 100% of the 55 employees on the shop floor are foreign.
This over supply of labour keeps the wage costs down and there is no prospect of this tap being turned off.
We didn't sign up for a European Union, we signed up for a Common Market for trading goods, not people or laws, and I want out please!
I come from an absolute classic Sheffield working-class council house background and now live in a four-bedroom detached house in a nice part of the city.
Even now a small part of me feels like a traitor for never having voted Labour in my entire life and there is a small element of the UKIP party that I am not 100% comfortable with.
But it's not about immigration and the immigrants themselves, it's about the simple supply and demand economic effect that results - good for big business, bad for the existing workers.