Farage angling for another Ukip comeback
NIGEL Farage has vowed to return as Ukip leader if Brexit is not ‘back on track’ by March – when the UK is due to leave the EU.
The hardline Brexiteer, who quit following the 2016 referendum result, called on Tory MPs to get rid of the ‘appalling’ Theresa May and warned they would lose their seats if they did not ‘honour the wishes of the electorate’.
He said he would return to the political front line if the Prime Minister continued to press ahead with her Chequers proposals, which have split her Cabinet.
Speaking on his LBC radio show, he said: ‘There will be a leadership contest within Ukip in March. If Brexit is not back on track, if we’re not actually going to be leaving and if this Chequers agreement has not been broken, I will very seriously consider putting my name forward to run as leader of Ukip again.
‘I can assure any Conservatives who are not prepared to stand up and honour the wishes of the electorate, I will make damn sure that you all lose your seats. Because there are millions of Conservative voters very unhappy indeed.’
Mr Farage also welcomed Boris Johnson’s resignation as Foreign Secretary, and suggested that Environment Secretary Michael Gove should follow him out of the Cabinet.
But Mr Farage also found himself in hot water last night after posting a picture online of an endangered shark species he caught during a fishing trip. The snap showed him on a boat grinning as he held a 3ft tope shark, with the caption: ‘Depressed over Brexit. Went fishing.’
But he was slammed by conservationists for handling the rare animal. TV’s Ben Fogle, who is a UN wildlife patron, shared the image on Twitter and added the line: ‘And caught an endangered tope shark. T**t.’ Anglers are allowed to catch tope sharks but have to put them back in the water, which Mr Farage claimed he did.