Farage – goodbye or au revoir again?

After a “This Is Your Life” bigging-up introduction, Nigel Farage took to the stage at a London venue.
Senior Ukip figures said with a miffed shrug that as usual they didn’t know what he was going to say.

He said the nation’s youth had been needlessly scared by establishment politicians. The economy was in great nick.

Mr Farage said the UK needed a negotiating team for EU talks that includes business people and hired hands from other countries.

He said Ukip would be well placed to marshal anger from poorer voters if the EU deal is not good enough and 2020 could be a Ukip landslide.

Then he announced that he was standing down, not for the first time, of course.

He said having got his country back he was now saying I want my life back.

He said he saw all sorts of changes in the future of party politics. That was in answer to a question from me about whether he could see Ukip and the Tories working together in the future. He said there could be an electoral pact if there was an early election in which Ukip don’t stand against Tories who voted for Brexit.

He mocked Tory Brexiteers like Boris Johnson who’ve been in denial, he said, about the role immigration and Ukip’s strident message played in the Brexit victory.

The man who has been the presiding face of Brexit for much of the foreign coverage of post-referendum UK proclaimed the referendum as very much a Ukip moment.

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