To think Farage should keep his promise?

[Icimoi]

Apparently he has graciously agreed to withdraw his resignation having conveniently been pressed to do so by the party. UKIP are maintaining he kept his promise to resign so that's fine. Farage is on record as saying the leader of the party should be a sitting MP. So what happened to that?

It seems to me that the whole thing has been an absolute farce. It seems fairly obvious that he never really thought he would have to resign and this has been cobbled together to try to come up with some sort of face saving means of avoiding it. If he truly wanted to resign and meant it, then it really wouldn't matter that UKIP allegedly refused to accept it: he couldn't be forced to carry on against his will. It follows therefore that the reality is that this is what he wanted.

None of it is in the least surprising, of course. I would hope that UKIP's followers will see through it, though I suspect that most won't.

[PurpleSwift]

What a joke. UKIP have no face without him, that's why. YANBU.

[SaucyJack]

Interesting. If we ignore the fact that both Farage and UKIP are utterly repellent, then YABU.

UKIP got over 3 million votes under Farage's leadership. He's clearly doing something "right" as far as UKIP are concerned.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

I think you'll find that there are a lot of ukip supporters who want him to remain as leader, and as you clearly aren't, I would say that it is more up to what they think, than you.

[partialderivative]

Like him or not, he has been a huge asset to the party. Why would they want to ditch him? No party would.

I am sure you may have noticed that UKIP are now the No. 3 part with the voters.

That's quite an achievement.

[Idontseeanydragons]

YANBU it strikes me as a 'back me or sack me' type of move followed by 'oh go on then I'll stay if you REALLY want me to'.
Having said that as already mentioned the campaign was hugely successful and love him or loathe him he has been successful in engaging many people in politics.
I would say he's actually been a pretty good party leader, as much as I can't stand the man or his party I have a (very) grudging respect for him.

[Aermingers]

Of course they're not going to ditch him. He took them to being the no.3 party in terms of votes. He tendered his resignation, it was rejected.

I don't support UKIP. But I have enough sense to realise they're not going to get rid of someone who took them from the fringe to getting 12.8 million votes and being the third largest in terms of votes. That would be suicide on their part.

The sort of people who are complaining about it and demanding he should fall on his sword are the kind of people who would never vote UKIP anyway, so their opinion is a complete irrelevance to UKIP.

Farage appeals to the sort of people who would vote UKIP and that's all that matters. The party had every right to turn down his resignation and to choose their own leader.

Just another reason for lefties to foam at the mouth about people they don't vote for not being forced to do exactly what they want. Or if that's not the case I eagerly await Labour's invitation for UKIP voters to choose their next leader.

[The80sweregreat]

I don't think he is any real threat to anyone in the Bullingdon club despite their increase in votes. The party know that Farage and Ukip go together like egg and bacon so they would have been silly to let him go.

[ArcheryAnnie]

I think it will serve as an excellent reminder to the voting populace that Farage is a git whose word cannot be trusted, and that UKIP in general will be either unwilling or unable to deliver anything they ever promises.

[partialderivative]

I doubt very much if that will be the case Annie

[NightsOfGethsemane]

Well, can you name another prominent member of UKIP? I can't. Love him or loathe him (and I know which side I'm on) he is a nationally recognised figure and has significantly increased his party's share of the vote.

[Aermingers]

I don't think it's the Tories who are particularly threatened by UKIP at the moment. I think it's Labour.

They didn't do much damage to the Tories election this time...

[NRomanoff]

Really who else would have followed. Ukip need him. I always thought hevsaidbhevwould resign but his intention was to stand again for leadership.

[oddfodd]

Without his rhetoric, they'd be exposed for the bunch of neanderthal racist thugs they really are. They need him or they have no party.

I'm not surprised he's a weaselly lying shit though.

[Chippednailvarnish]

Without Farage there is no UKIP and he knows it.

[FuzzyWizard]

In a way I think this is a good thing. I think Paul Nuttal could be far more dangerously credible and could decimate Labour votes in the North if he was leader.

[TheoriginalLEM]

More importantly, what i want to know is, has Paddy Ashdown eaten his hate yet???

I quite frankly couldnt give a shit what Nigel Farage does, him and his cronies can fuck off to the far side of fuck.

[lionheart]

I remember another politician who came unstuck because of a promise.

[YaTalkinToMe]

I think its the best news.

Just goes to show he is a master manipulator of situations like he has claimed other political people are, which seeing as he prides himself on not being like the others, its great that he has shown himself to be.

[goddessofsmallthings]

He's a politician - breaking promises is par for the course for them.

I'm also waiting for the momentous occasion when Paddy Pantsdown eats his hat... will Dimbleby give an after dinner speech?

[WhetherOrNot]

He won't be the first politician to not follow through - and he certainly won't be the last.

And 3.8 million people can't be wrong - he's here to stay

[Squitten]

It was clearly a stunt. He only offered in the first place because he was confident of his seat and now he has to swiftly backtrack because they are f**d without him. Doesn't surprise me at all.

[tictactoad]

Is anyone really surprised?

He's not the first or the only politician with a fine line in weasel words and UKIP would be mad to let him go if there's a way of keeping him. Of course he's back although I did think it would be September rather than 48 or so hours.

[LikeIcan]

His party unanimously rejected his resignation - good on them for sticking by him.
Plus he's a breath of fresh air in politics. Glad he's back.

[KidLorneRoll]

Aye, i'm sure this was not all planned out. Still, a bunch of cunts needs a prick to lead them, so he is as good as anyone.

[rumbleinthrjungle]

It is rather unfair that 1 million voters got 56 seats and 3 million voters got 1. I can't remember how many the Greens managed to get in this time, was it also 1? It's incredibly difficult for any of the small parties to get any kind of results, and UKIP actually did extremely well in the election in the small party terms.