Third biggest party but still Farage quits
‘I am a man of my word’ ‘Appeared to
be rattled’
NIGEL Farage yesterday stepped down as Ukip leader after the humiliating failure of his latest attempt to become an MP.
But within an hour he revealed he was considering standing again – in a leadership contest to be held in September.
This prompted suspicions that he was simply announcing a ‘summer holiday’.
Before the election, the Ukip leader had said his ‘neck was on the line’ and that he would resign as party leader if he failed to get elected in the Kent constituency of South Thanet.
As he campaigned a day before the vote he suggested the contest – which was his seventh attempt to get into Parliament – would be his last and described it as ‘the final countdown’.
Mr Farage has already stood down as party leader once before – in 2010 – before taking back the role. Asked if he would ‘do an Alex Salmond’ and attempt to return to frontline politics if he was defeated, Mr Farage admitted: ‘I’ve done that already, I don’t think I could do it for a third time.’
Ukip polled more than three million votes, but Mr Farage’s failure to reach Westminster, along with the defeat of Tory defector Mark Reckless in Rochester, means the party has only one MP, Clacton’s Douglas Carswell.
Within an hour of his defeat in Thanet South yesterday, Mr Farage was already musing over a possible return in a speech he delivered overlooking the Kent coastline.
Mr Farage claimed to be ‘happier than I have felt for many, many years’ as he talked about the burden being lifted from his shoulders after he resigned as leader.
He claimed to be a ‘man of my word’ as he confirmed the decision, but he caused shock when he revealed that he was thinking about only stepping down for only a few months.
He said: ‘ Now, I said as this campaign went on that if I didn’t win I would stand down as leader of Ukip.
‘I know you in the media are used to party leaders making endless promises that they don’t keep. But I’m a man of my word – and I don’t break my word.
‘So I shall be writing to the Ukip national executive in a few minutes and saying that I am standing down as leader of Ukip.’
Mr Farage said there had ‘ not been a single day since 1994 that hasn’t been dominated by Ukip’ and how he had not had a fortnight’s holiday since October 1993.
‘I intend to take the summer off, enjoy myself a little bit, not do very much politics at all.’
The Ukip leader said he would be recommending that Suzanne Evans, the party’s deputy chairman and author of its election manifesto, take over as acting leader.
He described the former BBC local radio reporter as an ‘absolute tower of strength within the Ukip’.
But then he paved the way for his return to the role at the end of the summer, saying: ‘There will be a leadership election for the next leader of Ukip in September and I will consider over the course of this summer whether to put my name forward to do that job again.’
Mr Farage appeared upset yesterday as he was announced as the loser in his bid to become an MP.
Conservative Craig Mackinlay won South Thanet by almost 3,000 votes, 18,838 to Mr Farage’s 16,026. The Ukip leader left the stage before all of his rival candidates had given their result speeches.
Last night Mr Farage refused to rule out running to become an MP yet again, saying: ‘I am not closing it completely because to do that in life is moronic.’
He said that he would spend the summer ‘thinking about my life’, he added: ‘I will think, “Do I really want to do this [be Ukip leader] again?”.’
He added: ‘No one has had more abuse thrown at them than I have – it has been bloody endless for two and a bit years, a lot of it unfair. It affects everyone around you. I am a lot tougher than most people but it is relentless. I want to spend some time seeing the children, catching a few fish.’
Mr Farage said he was contem- plating stepping down as an MEP, but said he expected to take part in the campaign before David Cameron’s promised referendum on membership of the EU.
He said: ‘I would not trust David Cameron as far as I could throw Ted Heath. I don’t trust him at all. There will be a role in that referendum for me to play. We are going to have to persuade the entrepreneurial class to speak out.
‘I am very fearful we are going to the wrong referendum with the wrong question, the wrong spending limits, not having an ombudsman to make sure the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation behaves and who votes is crucial.’ Mr Farage, who attended public school Dulwich College, ironically added: ‘If the no campaign is led by the posh boys it will not connect .’
He touted Douglas Carswell, the party’s only MP, current deputy leader Paul Nuttall and Miss Evans as possible successors as leader.
Mr Nuttall was ‘an extremely able person who is crucial to our longterm development in the North,’ he said.
He added: ‘I don’t know who will stand. Maybe Douglas doesn’t want to do it. I’d always thought the next Ukip leader would have to be an MP but Nicola Sturgeon has blown that theory out of the water. ’ Mr Farage appeared rattled as he arrived at a Ukip election night party in Margate shortly after the polls closed on Thursday.
He briefly spoke to TV reporters before storming off. He said: ‘I want to congratulate the editors of The Sun and the Daily Mail – they said the Ukip vote would split the Tory vote. God help us.’
Mr Farage seemed to be preparing for victory with champagne glasses lined up on silver trays ready to toast the result, however, they were left unused after it quickly became apparent he would lose.