Ukip is far from over, says Nigel Farage as he reveals the party wants to help negotiations with Brussels, by Tim Ross.
“In the Eastleigh by-election in 1994, Mr Farage “just crept past Lord Such” of the Monster Raving Loony Party by 164 votes, he recalls. Now, after being derided as a loony and a racist (by David Cameron, among others), Mr Farage and his party have triumphed. His war with the political establishment has delivered an era-defining result that will see the UK pull out of the European Union” …
Mr Farage has a strong claim to be the most influential figure in British politics since Margaret Thatcher. Without his often lonely campaign, which saw him elected Ukip leader in 2006, transforming the party into a popular force, there would never have been a referendum at all. …
Mr Farage says his long campaign would have been fruitless without the “vital” decision from Boris Johnson and Michael Gove to back Brexit and convert more Tories to the cause.
The Ukip leader called the Prime Minister “Dodgy Dave” during the referendum campaign but, in victory, refines his opinion. “He’s not a bad man – he just found himself at the wrong end of the argument, at the wrong point in history,” Mr Farage says. “I have – on a personal level – some sympathy for him.”
What next?
“There is an important role to play, and I shall say to whoever the new prime minister is, we want to help you,” he says.
His role could be formal or informal, he says, though he doubts he will be offered a job as a minister or a full member of any government delegation. “The vast majority of the political class – they don’t like me much round here.” …
Now that Britain has voted to leave the EU, Ukip, the party that he has led for most of the last 10 years, has achieved its goal. Has it outlived its uses?
Mr Farage disagrees. “Ukip has to remain strong. We have to be a threat to make sure the 17 million get their will.” There is also “a huge gap” now that Ukip can potentially fill, attracting disaffected Labour supporters who back Brexit and feel that Jeremy Corbyn’s pro-EU party is no longer for them. …
And what of his arch foe, the EU itself? “It’s dead,” he says. “A goner. And good.”
hat-tip Matthew
