Unprecedented Second Poll Victory for Farage.
Nigel Farage became the first person of a national political party to
win the leadership contest for the second time in over one hundred
years when the leadership poll results were announced on 5th November.
A date, you will remember, as Nigel wryly notes below in his election
speech, could change the face of British political history.
A four way shoot out between the worthy contestants saw 65% of the UKIP
electorate cast their votes and Nigel Farage won 60.5% of those votes
and with it the Leadership of the UK Independence Party for a second
term.
The new leader addressed the assembled media and TV cameras and said:
`I would firstly like to thank the UKIP electorate once more for
putting
their faith in me. I would also like to give thanks for being alive,
for being here and for having the chance to take on this role again. I
really did have the most miraculous escape from that plane crash. I
must also give thanks to my family who, once again, will have to pay
the price for me doing this job.
`I note with delight that today is November 5th, a symbolic day of an
attempt to overthrow the political class, although I promise our
methods will be peaceful.
Being leader of UKIP is a job I have done before and I led the party in
the European Elections of 2009 to second place across the entire United
Kingdom. If I was bold before the accident, I'm fearless now.
And this is the time to be fearless; to be strong and decisive and to
push for what we believe in. For never have the political classes been
more out of touch with public opinion.
Patriotic Old Labour voters have known this for a long time. The
Traditional Liberals are also finding it hard to recognise what the
Liberal Democrats have become.
But for millions of Tory voters, the last few months have been
something of a shock.
For years I was told 'The Tories are playing a very clever game' and
'Just wait until David gets in'.
Well, David is in. And his international policy is simple:
Surrender, Surrender, Surrender.
Patriotic Eurosceptic Tories are beginning to realise that under David
Cameron and William Hague their party has ceased to exist. Quite
simply, they've given up. Remember the cast-iron pledge of a referendum
on the Lisbon Treaty? They turned their back on it and now only UKIP
are prepared to put the question to the British people.
In no single area does our national interest come first.
Look at the economy, with cuts made in almost all areas of public life
except the EU budget. In December I will lead the UKIP MEPs in voting
against not only the 6% rise proposed by the European Parliament but
also the 2.9% rise we think is an insult to British tax payers and Mr
Cameron thinks is some sort of victory.
And their defence policy reads like the script of a Gilbert and
Sullivan farce. Carriers without planes and 50 year treaties with
France; troop numbers at risk when we are facing the hardest fighting
since the Second World War. Our Armed Forces should be completely at
the command of the British government: they take an oath to The Queen
as their Commander in Chief not Nicolas Sarkozy. We must take back full
control of our defence forces.
As for immigration, well every single assurance the Tory Party has made
has proved to be valueless. Now we don't just have an open door to the
Bulgarian criminal gangs but a million Moldavians have been given EU
passports and a new trade deal with India is being negotiated which
proposes not just trade but an open door to the entire Indian work
force into the United Kingdom. Every assurance on immigration caps is
meaningless. The only people who should decide who comes to live, work
and settle in this country should be the British people themselves
through their own parliament.
But the acceptance by the coalition of the EU Foreign Policy and the
formation of an EU External Action Service under the ludicrous Baroness
Ashton is a policy which should make the Tories hang their head in
shame. The woman that no one dares to criticise, a woman who has never
been elected to anything apart from her successful position as
treasurer of CND. Well I dare. Closing British embassies and replacing
them with EU ones doesn't give the UK a bigger influence in the world.
And despite receiving millions of pounds from City sources, Mr Cameron
has given away total control of the UK's biggest industry to three EU
regulators. It is now an irrelevance who forms the British government
now if you work in financial services. In all areas of our public life,
UKIP is the only party saying let's take back control.
Sadly, there isn't time to mention the £8.7 billion being spent on
dubious foreign aid or giving the vote to rapists and murderers; the
wasted billions on useless windfarms and the closing down of British
industry because of carbon credits.
In 'defending' the national interest, David Cameron has let the country
down like a cheap pair of braces.
Britain needs a party that puts British interests first.
UKIP is that party, but it needs to up its game.
I'm appealing to people who believe in the UKIP message that the best
people to govern Britain are the British people themselves; not to just
agree with us, or lend us their vote at European Elections.
I'm appealing for them to join us, to get involved in this battle
against our political classes. When David Cameron talked about the
'Big Society' I had no idea what he was talking about. Well, here's my
version of it. Let's create the Big Society of law abiding, tax paying,
patriotic people and urge them to join us in this battle against our
gutless political classes.
Help us to make UKIP a force to be reckoned with.
Thank you.'
Seldom in modern politics has a political leader given such a
forthright speech and an appeal to disillusioned voters throughout the
country to get involved, support the UKIP fight to win back our country
and to kick the unnamed, unknown, faceless bureaucrats out of our
country's affairs and hand the governance of the United Kingdom back to
our own elected and accountable MPs in Parliament at Westminster.
Nigel Farage's message could not be clearer; if you care about your
country and how it is governed the time has come to support UKIP. Not
just by voting for the party but by joining us.
Nigel Farage Re-Elected UKIP Party Leader
(c) Sky News 2010Nigel Farage has launched an attack on Prime Minister David Cameron as he
returned as leader of the UK Independence Party.
RELATED PHOTOS / VIDEOS
The MEP and former leader beat David Campbell Bannerman, Tim Congdon and Winston McKenzie in the members' ballot.
Mr Farage, who received more than 60% of the vote, used his acceptance speech to criticise the Government and call on disillusioned voters to switch to UKIP.
He said the Conservatives' policy in Europe could be summed up as: "Surrender, surrender, surrender."
"Patriotic eurosceptic Tories are beginning to realise that under David Cameron and under William Hague, their party has ceased to exist," he said.
He mocked the Government for cutting almost every budget while increasing the amount of money spent on the EU.
Mr Farage told supporters the political class had "never been more out of touch" and he did not have the "foggiest" idea what Mr Cameron's 'Big Society' policy meant.
A former leader of the party, he stepped down to stand for Parliament but failed to unseat Speaker John Bercow.
The eurosceptic politician survived a plane crash on election day, which he described as "nothing short of miraculous".
Ex-leader Lord Pearson welcomed Mr Farage's re-election and said: "The UKIP crown returns to it rightful owner."
He joked that as leader, he would be best remembered as the "toff who didn't bother to read his own manifesto".
When he quit, Lord Pearson said he was "not much good" at party politics.
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