Nigel Farage tells critics: swear loyalty to me or leave Ukip

Mr Farage tells The Telegraph he is prepared to become a more 'autocratic' leader to impose his will on the party:

There was speculation that the figure was Douglas Carswell, the party’s sole MP, although Mr Farage denied that he had him in mind.Mr Farage told the Telegraph he was prepared to become a more “autocratic” leader to impose his will on the party.The Ukip leader took the high risk strategy of challenging his critics as he sought to bolster his authority in the party after a week of strife at the party’s highest level.The crisis was started when the party’s ruling board rejected his resignation as leader after he failed to be elected as MP for South Thanet at last week’s election.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11607607/Nigel-Farage-tells-critics-swear-loyalty-to-me-or-leave-Ukip.html

I think that's fair enough. UKIP wants him as leader, so ...

He certainly seems popular enough.
Let's face it, we can pick holes in all party leaders of we try hard enough.

I think any leader must show an ability to lead an that means making decisions especially hard decision these are demonstartions of back bone...

Nigel Farage: can he stay on as leader amid Ukip 'implosion'?

Unprintable four letter words, nasty accusations and 'North Korean' tactics in growing Ukip row

Nigel Farage is refusing to quit as Ukip leader despite a growing row within the party and pleas for him to stand down.

The infighting – described by one senior Ukip source as an attempted "coup" – emerged days after Farage un-resigned as Ukip leader.

The 51-year-old had promised to stand down if he lost the South Thanet seat in the general election, but after following through on his promise he was reinstated days later when the party refused to accept his resignation.

Patrick O'Flynn, Ukip MEP and economic spokesman, subsequently accused Farage of being a "snarling, thin-skinned, aggressive" man who had made the party look like a "personality cult".

He later verified that he supported Farage but wanted to see the back of the leader's "inexperienced" advisers who were trying to pull the party in a similar direction to that of the Tea Party movement in the US.

Ukip has since announced that Matthew Richardson, the party secretary, had tendered his resignation and Raheem Kassam, Farage's chief of staff, would be leaving.

In a separate row, Ukip's only MP Douglas Carswell has been quarrelling with Farage over whether he should accept all of the £3.25m funding for his parliamentary activities due to the party on account of its 3.9 million votes.

Now UKIP supporters, donors and members are wading into the debate about whether Farage can maintain his position.

BBC political correspondent Robin Brant said the infighting had become "very public and very nasty" with close allies of Farage using "unprintable four and five letter words" in texts to him to describe O'Flynn and Carswell.

The Times suggests it might be the "biggest implosion in the party's 22-year history" and reveals that Ukip officials have been asking MEPs to sign a letter of support for Farage – a tactic branded as "North Korean" by one insider.

Last night on Question Time, Farage insisted he had "phenomenal" support from within the party and that it would be a "massive, massive mistake" for him to stand down as Cameron hopes to renegotiate the UK's relationship with the European Union.

Richard Desmond, the owner of Express Newspapers, who donated £1m to Ukip during the election campaign, said Farage had his "support 101 per cent".

But the party's treasurer Hugh Williams said it was time Farage let the party "stand on its own two feet".

Ukip donor Stuart Wheeler also suggested Farage should resign at least until he can be elected back in, while former Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom said Carswell should become the new leader.

Meanwhile, police who had been investigating a complaint from a member of public about alleged electoral fraud in South Thanet said they had closed the case after no evidence of wrongdoing was found.
Nigel Farage 'snarling and aggressive' says campaign chief

14 May

Nigel Farage has become a "snarling, thin-skinned, aggressive" man whose return as leader of Ukip makes the party appear little more than a "personality cult", according to the party's campaign director.

Patrick O'Flynn, the Ukip economic spokesman and an MEP, said in an interview that Farage had changed from "cheerful, ebullient, cheeky and daring" to being a much more difficult character.

After failing to win the seat of South Thanet in last week's general election, Farage kept to his pre-election promise and stood down as the leader of Ukip. But the 51-year-old MEP was back just three days later after the party "rejected his resignation".

Speaking to The Times, O'Flynn said: "What's happened since Thursday night, Friday morning has certainly laid us open to the charge that this looks like an absolutist monarchy or a personality cult.

"I don't think that even Nigel would say it's been the most glorious chapter of his leadership."

He added that if the party continued along its present trajectory, it risked opening itself to accusations that it had become an "absolute monarchy".

O'Flynn said that Ukip was "a mature political party now" and must act like one. To set the party back on track, Farage must "clear out" his "aggressive" and "inexperienced" aides and adopt "a much more consultative and consensual leadership style", he said.

Ukip received 3.9m votes in the recent general election, but emerged with just one MP.

Douglas Carswell, the MP for Clacton, who defected from the Conservative party last year, has already found himself at odds with Ukip party officials. According to the bookmaker William Hill, he is now at evens to leave the party before the next general election.

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/election-2015/63610/nigel-farage-can-he-stay-on-as-leader-amid-ukip-implosion#ixzz3aEwSTxEz


The wheels are coming off, and Farage is showing himself up for what he is, a despot.

Is it better to have a man with an edge or a plastic buttery soft sap, to lead a party?

I hate these politicians who pretend to be perfect.

At least this is all out in the open at the start of his proposed leadership.

What I can't stand is the plastic robot that stands and lectures me, their words like stones falling from their mouths and leaving no colour to the air they touch.

I trust a multi-layered, multi-edged person far more than I do a grey shadow.

Let's see what he can do this time around.
He interests me, but I didn't vote for him as I didn't like his party.

Ukip's only MP joins calls for Farage to step down

Ukip’s only MP has joined calls from within the party for Nigel Farage to stand down, saying that the leader should “take a break”. Douglas Carswell, who was re-elected as MP for Clacton, said that he did not want to take on the leadership of Ukip but did believe Farage should go.

He praised Farage’s “inspirational” campaign, which helped Ukip to win 3.9m votes at the election, but said that the party should reflect on how it should go forward – without Farage as leader. “Knowing how difficult it is to lead a party makes me admire Nigel Farage all the more,” Carswell wrote in the Times. “On his watch, Ukip has done extraordinarily well. Yet even leaders need to take a break. Nigel needs to take a break now.”

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/16/ukips-only-mp-joins-calls-for-farage-to-step-down

If their only MP doesn't want him, he's on his way out.