Posted on 05/15/2015 2:19:43 AM PDT by Nextrush
UKIP's Nigel Farage has ruled out standing down as leader of the party despite a bitter row over his future.
MEP Patrick O'Flynn earlier claimed Mr. Farage had fallen under the influence of "inexperienced" advisers, which was followed by the departure of two aides.
However, Mr. Farage told the BBC's Question Time he had a "phenomenal" level of support within the party.
Leaving just as the PM was addressed the UK's relationship with the EU would be a "massive mistake", he said......
The UKIP leader stood down after failing to win the Kent seat of Thanet South in the general election, but was reinstated three days later when the party refused to accept his resignation.
Asked on Question Time about the situation, Mr. Farage said he now accepted it would be the wrong time to step down.
"The level of support for me in the party is phenomenal and, frankly, to go through a leadership contest at a time when (David) Cameron says he's renegotiating our relationship with the European Union would be a massive, massive mistake," he said......
Mr. O'Flynn, the party's economic spokesman, had written in the "Times" that Mr. Farage had gone from being a cheerful, ebullient...daring" politician to a "snarling, thin-skinned aggressive" man.
He said that some around Mr. Farage "would like to take UKIP in the direction of some hard-right, ultra-aggressive American Tea Party"......
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
You're better than the garbage being thrown at you during the election and after the election by folks that the Tories probably sent into UKIP to spy and make mischief.
Speaking of Tory mischief, the police came out this week to claim they found no evidence of wrongdoing in the vote for the Thanet South House of Commons seat that Nigel Farage lost to the Tories after a poll showed him nine points ahead.
The vote count ran late well into Friday morning last week with officials saying they had a lot of postal votes to verify. Postal votes are the British way of saying 'absentee ballots'.
While UKIP lost the parliamentary seat, they won control of the local council when those votes were counted later, raising suspicions that something funny was going on in Thanet South.
I’m shocked, shocked that the so-called “Conservative” Party would engage in voter fraud against actual Conservatives (see MS: McDaniel vs. Thad the Barnyard Animal Molesting Cad).
I think it was a bad idea to promise to quit.
Was he only going to quit as leader and stay on as an EU MP?
Enoch Powell quitting on principle was a disaster. He would have been leader of the Conservative Party in 2 cycles.
When Haley Barbour and the other Gerald Ford operatives took out Ronald Reagan with a narrow victory at the 1976 Republican National Convention, Reagan spoke to his supporters.
He compared the process to “the world with its pants down” and then urged his supporters to stay with him.
Four years later Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States.
Nigel Farage should go forward and there are many who want him to do just that.
Indeed - the media are OBSESSED with him - they know, deep down, most people like Farage, even if they didn’t vote for him this time.
And don’t underestimate the importance of that, this hasn’t happened for decades, and I think his ability to make that connection with ordinary pople eclipses even that of Thatcher.
UKIP certainly made some mistakes in the campaign, but the level of support for Farage is fanatical amongst some in this country. I personally think that is a good thing, and without it, he would certainly have been quite happy to fade of into the background.
UKIP is now the third-party in British politics and rising. They are poised for a strong run in 2020. Farage can build on this if he goes about it the right way.
I actually think he will better as a Party leader then as an MP, which I am sure includes a great deal of mundane work.
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