Nigel Farage stamped his authority on Ukip with a round of sackings, but he has also listened to his critics. In his Spectator diary, the Ukip leader admits one of his chief critics Douglas Carswell had a point, saying ‘he was right: I could do with a break.’ He told Emily Matlis on BBC News this afternoon he is planning to take a few weeks off this summer — similarly to the other party leaders:
‘Look, it’s been a difficult time. Who would have believed there would be a majority Conservative government with 331 Conservative MPs with an average of 36,000 votes each, whereas four million people with just one MP. It’s been a very difficult 5 or 10 days. But I will tell you this: firstly I’m taking a holiday, yes. Secondly, we’re the one party who going into the referendum absolutely united in our view.’
There is no position Farage could sack Carswell from — he holds no office in the party — so he has instead decided to take notice of his only MP. As you might expect, Farage said that Ukip’s deputy leader Paul Nuttall will be stepping up and running the party in his place. But he said he won’t be away too long:
‘I’ll take a few weeks off. I’m not running away because of course the one thing I’ve spent 20 years fighting for — namely that we should get a referendum on our membership of the European Union is now on the agenda and I suspect it’ll take place in May next year. I can’t be away for too long, this matters too much’
Farage also repeated the idea he was ‘shocked and taken aback’ by the NEC’s enthusiasm for him staying on as leader. This contradicts reports that the meeting was far from smooth, as Isabel revealed last week. Indeed, one senior figure told me that the meeting was a ‘sham’. I understand that one of the motivations behind Farage’s ‘unresignation’ was to stop Paul Nuttall usurping him. ‘It was all about stopping Paul Nuttall becoming interim leader’, says a Ukip source. ‘If he became interim leader, there would be no reason for Nigel to come back’.
Given Farage is effectively announcing he is going on holiday, he needn’t fear any such putsch. The Ukip wars may be about to calm as Farage disappears on his break – but are they over forever?
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