Nigel Farage will quit as UKIP leader

**scottish** · 16-03-2015, 01:04 PM

Nigel Farage: I will quit as Ukip leader if I am not MP in two months' time

The Ukip leader says if he fails to enter the House of Commons as MP for South Thanet at the 2015 General Election, he will step down.

Nigel Farage will quit as the leader of the UK Independence Party if he fails to be elected as an MP in two months' time.

The Ukip leader says if he fails to enter the House of Commons as MP for South Thanet at the election, it will be "curtains for me".

The admission will significantly raise the political temperature in South Thanet because Labour and the Tories know now that if they can win that seat - or stop Mr Farage winning - it will be a huge dent in Ukip's advance.

Mr Farage contemplates the end of his tenure as Ukip leader in the final extract of his new book "The Purple Revolution", serialised in Monday's Telegraph.

He was re-elected for another four year term as Ukip leader last November, which should see him stay in post until November 2018.

However in his book he says: "The consequences of me failing to secure a seat for myself in the Commons would be significant for both myself and the party.

"It is frankly just not credible for me to continue to lead the party without a Westminster seat.

"What credibility would Ukip have in the Commons if others had to enunciate party policy in Parliament and the party leader was only allowed in as a guest?

"Was I supposed to brief Ukip policy from the Westminster Arms? No - if I fail to win South Thanet, it is curtains for me. I will have to step down."

Mr Farage, who is already an MEP, had planned to start his campaign in South Thanet last September but had to delay it to January this year because of the party's unexpected by-election successes in Clacton and then Rochester and Strood.

Chris Bruni-Lowe, the well-regarded Ukip election co-ordinator who ran the two successful by-elections in the Autumn, is running Mr Farage's campaign.

Mr Farage - who admits he loves "a gamble" - says "voters are not stupid" and will know that if he is elected he will have less time to spend in South Thanet than a backbench MP.

But he hopes that Ukip can win many councillors in local elections on the same day. "I cannot win this seat on my own," he says.

"But I think I can win it if I can show that I am part of a big, strong, active local team to support them, that is enthusiastic and capable.

"I think that is quite a compelling offer. We will do our best to get enough council seats to control the district council."

Mr Farage has also been told by his team that he is a "Marmite" politician - voters either really like him or really hate him. He says he has tailored his canvassing strategy accordingly.

He says: "I am told that I am a divisive figure - a 'Marmite' man - people either love me or loathe me. Chris really made that characteristic work in our local electoral strategy: UKIP campaigners discover very quickly when they are door-stepping which ones despise me.

"The trick is to give them a wide berth, don't waste time trying to convert them and make sure that on polling day you leave them alone - history has shown that, if prodded, they are more likely to try to block UKIP if they have not already voted."

Tying his political future to the South Thanet seat is a calculated risk - he hopes that he will draw the "flak" from the Opposition parties to him and away from the party's other target seats.

Mr Farage adds: "While we are trying to keep well away from negative campaigning, the flak against me is quite substantial and I suspect it will only get worse the closer we get to the election.

"The other parties are obsessed with me not winning a Westminster seat and I can only hope that the hits on me will take the heat off the other UKIP target seats."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...nths-time.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...bid-fails.html
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/...d-mp-1-7157537
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-10109927.html

I believe the last polling data suggests:
UKIP - 38.6%
Labour - 27.6%
Cons. - 26.6%
Greens - 3.1%
Lib Dems - 2%
FUKP - 1.4% (lol)