Ukip still has vital role in making sure there is no backsliding, says Farage

NIGEL Farage yesterday suggested that Ukip could be out of business if Theresa May does eventually deliver a full break from the EU.

But the former leader of the anti-Brussels party said that at the moment his “People’s Army” was still needed to ensure there was no “backsliding” on Brexit.

And he insisted Ukip would survive in spite of the last week’s local election wipe-out, losing 145 council seats and gaining just one.

In an interview on the ITV’s Peston On Sunday, Mr Farage, pictured below, said Ukip still had a vital role to play in politics despite the collapse in support at the ballot box.

“If in two and a half years’ time Mrs May has delivered the kind of Brexit voters wanted, then I think you can ask the question, what is Ukip’s future, where does it go from here?” he said.

A number of Ukip supporters have told him they would back Mrs May in the election because of her promise to deliver Brexit. But he believed they could change their minds before polling day.

“Fast forward a couple of weeks, when people realise actually this election’s a non-contest that she’s going to win by a country mile anyway, then the squeeze that you tend to see on small parties towards the end of the campaign, in this case, will be the other way around. Ukip’s going to survive, it has to survive,” he added. “And I think it’s all well and good for Mrs May who gives wonderful speeches and sounds very reassuring.

“But the truth of it is as home secretary she did the same thing on immigration and other issues and didn’t deliver, and Ukip needs to be there in case there is backsliding on Brexit.”

Asked if he supported Mrs May, the former Ukip leader said: “I don’t tend to support Remain voters, I don’t tend to support people who’ve failed.

“She is using exactly the same words and phrases that I’ve been using for 20 years and so I’m thrilled. I thought bashing Brussels bureaucrats was purely my domain. It looks and sounds fantastic but we’ve got a career politician here whose record of delivery in the past has been very poor. So let’s see.”

Mr Farage praised the way his successor Paul Nuttall had handled the aftermath of the local election wipe-out.

“I thought the way he came out after what had been a really very tough 24 hours was strong and reassuring. Paul said we were victims of our own success. I led the party four years ago in those county council elections in England on a manifesto of bringing back grammar schools, getting Britain outside the European Union, controlling immigration and helping small businesses. And four years on the British Prime Minister was running on exactly the same ticket and swept the

boards.”