The party’s talisman walks out the door
The face of Brexit Nigel Farage quit UKIP on Tuesday, saying “It is not the Brexit party our nation so badly needs.”
UKIP’s former leader had previously expressed worry at the party’s drift to the far-right, adding the likes of Milo Yiannopoulos and Count Dankular to its ranks while appointing Tommy Robinson as an adviser.
He said today: “Under Gerard Batten’s leadership, however, the party’s direction has changed fundamentally… The party of elections is quickly becoming a party of street activism, with our members being urged to attend marches rather than taking the fight to the ballot box.
“My heart sinks as I reflect on the idea that [Tommy Robinson and others] may be seen by some as representative of the cause for which I have campaigned for so much of my adult life.”
The party’s meltdown was all but assured in February, when leader Henry Bolton was deposed at an emergency meeting. However, Farage’s departure is more than just symbolic – he is the figurehead around which much of the electorate mustered. His rejection of UKIP’s direction under new leader Gerard Batten is one of a series of hammer blows each supposedly fatal in turn, although this seems absolutely final.
So Nigel, where you off to next?
