PERSON: Nigel Farage

UK Independence Party

Member

Nigel Paul Farage (/ˈfærɑːʒ/; born 3 April 1964) is a British politician, broadcaster and political analyst who was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and again from 2010 to 2016. Since 1999 he has been an MEP for South East England. He co-chairs the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (formerly “Europe of Freedom and Democracy”) group. A prominent Eurosceptic in the UK, he has been noted for his sometimes controversial speeches in the European Parliament and has strongly criticised the euro currency.

Farage was a founder member of UKIP, having left the Conservative Party in 1992 after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. After unsuccessfully campaigning in European and Westminster parliamentary elections for UKIP since 1994, he was elected MEP for South East England in the 1999 European Parliament election. He was subsequently re-elected in 2004, 2009 and, most recently, at the 2014 European parliament election.

In September 2006, Farage became the UKIP Leader and led the party through the 2009 European Parliament Election, when it won the second highest share of the popular vote, defeating Labour and the Liberal Democrats with over two million votes. He stepped down in November 2009 to concentrate on contesting Buckingham, the constituency of the Speaker, John Bercow, at the 2010 general election, coming third. In November 2010, Farage successfully stood in the 2010 UKIP leadership contest, following the resignation of Lord Pearson of Rannoch.

Farage announced his resignation as leader when he did not win the South Thanet seat in Kent at the 2015 general election, but his resignation was rejected and he remained in his post. In June 2016, Farage was a prominent supporter of the successful campaign for a vote in favour of leaving the EU in the UK EU membership referendum. On 4 July 2016, Farage again announced his resignation as leader of UKIP, triggering a leadership election. Diane James was elected to succeed him, but she resigned as leader after just 18 days and Farage became interim leader on 5 October 2016. A second leadership election was held in November, which was won by Paul Nuttall, who thus succeeded Farage. Farage was ranked second in The Daily Telegraph’s Top 100 most influential right-wingers poll in October 2013, behind Prime Minister David Cameron. He was also named “Briton of the Year” by The Times in 2014. In 2017, Farage began contributing to the American television network Fox News.

— Wikipedia