Nigel Farage resigns as Ukip leader

[dutchman]

Nigel Farage has resigned as Ukip leader after his success in the EU referendum and said: "I want my life back".



The Ukip leader said "I feel I have done my bit" and "couldn't possibly achieve more" than he did in the EU referendum.

At a press conference in London he said: "During this referendum campaign I said I want my country back. Now I want my life back.

"I feel I have done my bit. I couldn't possibly achieve more than we did in that referendum. I stand aside aside. I won’t be changing my mind again, I promise you.”

He said he will remain as an MEP and continue to support Ukip, which he said is in a "sound position".

Douglas Carswell has ruled himself out of standing for the Ukip leadership, telling the BBC: "I'm certainly not going to stand to lead Ukip."

[dutchman]

Nigel Farage considers standing as an MP in 2020 if Britain has not quit the European Union



Nigel Farage threatened to overshadow the election of new UK Independence Party leader Diane James by saying he is considering a return to a major national political role as an MP in 2020.

The former Ukip leader is also planning a UK-wide tour in the spring when he will talk to audiences about Brexit, after a personal tour of Continental capitals in the next few months to encourage others to quit the European Union.

The news came as Mrs James was elected Ukip leader and immediately moved to remove Neil Hamilton, a divisive Ukip Welsh assembly member, from the speaking line-up at the party conference on Saturday.

Speaking to The Telegraph in a local pub shortly after his final speech as leader to the conference in Bournemouth, Mr Farage made clear that he had no plans to shrink from public view after quitting.

Mr Farage said he would consider standing as an MP in 2020 if Brexit was “unresolved and, if it is, I might think about it”.

He said: “I am not walking away from politics, I am walking away from party politics.”

Mr Farage said that he was “considering doing a bit of a tour around the country next spring, a great opportunity to talk about Brexit and keep the pressure on”.

He also said he would “this autumn travel around some other European capitals to try and help independence and democracy movements in those countries”.

Mr Farage said he would remain a member of Ukip and would be available to offer any support and advice to his successor.

He said he would be supporting the work of millionaire Arron Banks’ Leave.EU anti-EU movement which will “complement” Ukip. “We are actively talking about it,” he said.

Mr Farage said he feared that Theresa May, the Prime Minister, was attempting to water down terms of Britain leaving the EU.

He set out three demands which Leave supporters would use to judge Mrs May, who campaigning for Britain to stay in the EU.

He said: “Will we have back our territorial fishing waters around the coast of the United Kingdom? Will we be outside the single market?

“And above all, the acid test of Brexit , is whether that [an EU passport] has been put in the bin and we get back a British passport.”

Mr Farage urged Ukip to win over more Labour supporters in the north of England, saying he did not think that the “harvest of votes that we can get from the Labour party has really started yet”.

If Mrs May failed to deliver a “hard Brexit” he said “there will be a very large number of Conservatives that will say there is only party that we can support”.

[dutchman]

They didn't vote for "soft Brexit" either!

[rebbonk]

The only good thing to ever come out of Europe is the transport back to the UK. The least we have to do with the rapidly failing EU the better.