NIGEL Farage, the outgoing UK Independence Party leader, plans to use a seat in the House of Commons to cause divisions over Europe in other parties which could tear them apart.

He is to stand against Commons Speaker John Bercow at next year's General Election and, if he wins, believes he could use his position to drive a wedge between backbenchers and their leaders.

While the Conservative Party is most at the mercy of a split over Europe, Mr Farage claims he would seek to unite MPs from all parties in campaigning for a referendum on our continued membership of the European Union.

And he refuses to rule out coaxing Conservatives into defecting to UKIP if David Cameron fails to cede to their demands.

As MPs return from their 82-day recess on Monday, Mr Farage told the WMN that securing a seat in the Commons was the next step in his campaign for Britain to leave the EU.

He hopes to exploit last week's "yes" vote in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty to full effect.

"If it appears that the Irish have been bullied and bribed and Mr Cameron is not prepared to address that with some sort of referendum, I think it is impossible to predict what the future could be," he said.

Ireland is the only EU member state to have held a referendum on the treaty – although the French and Dutch have previously voted to reject the earlier EU Constitution, which critics say is virtually the same as the treaty.

Poland and the Czech Republic are yet to fully ratify the treaty and Mr Cameron has vowed that if wins power before the treaty is implemented fully, he would also hold a referendum, recommending a "no" vote.

Either way, Mr Farage believes he could use a position on the Commons green benches to expose the splits in the Tory ranks over Europe which were fatal for John Major.

"I don't think Tory high command will like to see me on the backbenches, mingling with some of their number. That's not a sight they'd want."

Mr Farage stood down as leader of UKIP last month to concentrate on trying to oust Commons Speaker John Bercow from his Buckingham seat.

After UKIP came second in the European elections in June, he believed that "logically, getting an elected voice in the House of Commons is the next step for us, tough though that may be".

"If I get into Parliament, what I will try to do is get together with MPs from the Conservatives and… there will be Labour people I would talk to.

"What I would like to try to do is start in those circumstances a campaign for a referendum on our continued membership of the European Union.

"I think that would get a lot of backbench support. People would have to say to their leaders: 'We are not being disloyal, we are not going against your line but we are saying that the public needs to have this debate'."

Asked if he could envisage defections to UKIP by the most ardently Euro-sceptic MPs, he added: "I don't think one can look that far into the future. Suffice to say, there are a lot of people in the Tory Party in particular, some in Labour too, for whom this issue is an absolute fundamental."