Britain’s pro-Brexit voice Nigel Farage steps down as UKIP leader

London: Britain’s main pro-Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage on Monday resigned as head of the far-right, anti- immigrant UK Independence Party (UKIP). He said he couldn’t possibly achieve more, just two weeks after Britons voted to leave the European Union (EU).

Farage, 52, said he felt he had done all he could achieve a vote for the UK to leave the EU in a referendum on June 23 and now he wanted his life back.
Farage said: “I campaigned for ‘I want my country back,’ now I want my life back. However, I will continue as European Parliament member until the process of exiting EU is over.”
Farage, who had led a separate grassroots campaign to convince voters of a ‘Brexit’, had made numerous speeches in the wake of the result to declare June 23 Britain’s Independence Day.

Nigel Farage, UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader

I campaigned for ‘I want my country back,’ now I want my life back. However, I will continue as European Parliament member until the process of exiting EU is over.

“I now feel that I’ve done my bit, that I couldn’t possibly achieve more,” said Farage, who was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the party in 1999.
“I feel it’s right that I should now stand aside as leader of UKIP, he told reporters at a press conference here. I have never been and never wanted to be a career politician,” he added.

He said he now wants a cross party team to negotiate the UK’s exit from Brussels but he said the most important thing was that the team knows how to win the best deal. An absolute priority is to bring in business people, he added. He has had two stints as leader of the Eurosceptic party since 2006.

Britain on June 23 voted to leave the 28-member economic bloc in a historic referendum, in which 52 per cent voted to Leave while 48 per cent sided with the Remain camp.