Nigel Farage

Nigel Paul Farage (born 3 April 1964) is a former metal broker in the City of London, and a British politician who has been the 2nd Leader of Reform UK from 2019 to 2021, and again since 2024. Farage has also been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Clacton since 2024. In the past, he was a Member of the European Parliament for the South East England region and he was one of the leaders of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group in the European Parliament until Great Britain left the European Union in 2020. Since then, he has worked as a broadcaster.

Farage is known for being the former leader of the UK Independence Party. Farage has been an important figure in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.

Political career
Nigel Farage left the Conservative Party in 1992 after the Maastricht Treaty was signed by John Major's Conservative government. He was first elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 1999 and was re-elected in 2004 and 2009. In September 2006, he was elected to become the UKIP leader and was party leader during the 2009 European Parliament election where UKIP received the second highest number of votes after the Conservative Party.

In November 2009, Farage resigned as UKIP leader because he wanted to concentrate on being elected to the House of Commons at the 2010 General Election. At the general election, Farage failed to be elected and became the UKIP leader again in November 2010.Andrew Sparrow "Nigel Farage to stand for Ukip leadership again", The Guardian, 3 September 2010

Farage stood for election as an MP for South Thanet in 2015. He lost to Craig Mackinlay. He resigned as leader. Four days later, Farage became the leader of the party again.

Farage was instrumental in the Brexit campaign and was regarded by many as the main factor why the Leave campaign won and the UK voted to leave the European Union. On 25 August 2016, Farage was invited to a Donald Trump rally, in Jackson, Mississippi, to give him his support in the run-up to the US election in November 2016. During the rally, he said the famous quote "If I was an American citizen, I wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton if you paid me. In fact, I wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton if she paid me."

Farage is thought to be the first British politician to address a Republican presidential election rally. Speaking from the United States, Mr. Farage told The Daily Telegraph: “Brexit is just massive over here. I went to the [Republican Party] convention in Cleveland and I just could not believe that ordinary people are talking to me about Brexit. They see it as a victory of ordinary people against big business, big banks, and big politics. “The Republican activists and managers here are keen to hear the Brexit story, hear how we  managed to get 2.5 million people who don’t normally vote at all to go down to the polling station." Ever since the allegations about Russian interference in the US election, Farage has been viewed by the FBI as a "person of interest" in order to discover wherever he also interfered with the election, like the Russian government.

On 4 December 2018, Nigel Farage left the UKIP Party as he believed its new leader Gerard Batten was becoming too obsessed with Tommy Robinson and Islam.

In October 2020, Farage praised Donald Trump and spoke in support of Trump at one of his campaign rallies. After Trump's criminal convictions in 2024, Farage stated that he supports Trump, "more than ever".

  Leader of Reform UK 
On 3 June 2024, Farage announced that he would be leader of Reform UK again, for the 2024 general election. In the 4 July election, Reform UK won 14% of the vote and 5 seats in the House of Commons. Farage was elected as MP for Clacton.

Since the election, Reform UK has risen in the polls and is close to Labour and the Conservatives.

 Television 
In 2023, Nigel Farage appeared on the 23rd season of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here.

Personal life
In his early twenties, Farage was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He made a full recovery.

Farage has been married twice. He married Gráinne Hayes in 1988. They had two children: Samuel (1989) and Thomas (1991). The marriage ended in divorce in 1997. In 1999 he married Kirsten Mehr, a German national. They have two children, Victoria (born 2000) and Isabelle (born 2005).

Notes

References

Other websites

Nigel Farage Profile at European Parliament website
UKIP MEPs  Official website of the UK Independence Party in the European Parliament
Europe of Freedom and Democracy  Political group in the European Parliament
Debrett's People of Today

Category:1964 births
Category:Living people
Category:Brexit
Category:English Anglicans
Category:Leaders of Reform UK
Category:MEPs for the United Kingdom
Category:People from the London Borough of Bromley
Category:Politicians from Kent
Category:Politicians from London
Category:UK Independence Party
Category:UK MPs 2024–present
Category:Reform UK MPs