Nigel Farage demanded a seat at Brexit negotiations on Monday after his new party swept to victory in the United Kingdom’s European Parliament election, warning that he would turn British politics upside down if denied.
Farage, a bombastic 55-year-old commodities broker-turned anti-establishment supremo, won by riding a wave of anger at the failure of Prime Minister Theresa May to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union.
As May’s Conservative Party prepares to pick a new leader, Farage had a warning for the next prime minister: A say in the United Kingdom’s biggest decision since World War Two.
“We should be part of the team now, that’s pretty clear,” Brexit Party leader Farage told Reuters at an election count in the southern English city of Southampton.
After repeated delays to Brexit, Farage said the United Kingdom had to leave the EU on Oct. 31, the current deadline for Britain’s parliament to agree an exit deal. Farage would prefer to leave without a deal.
Nigel Farage won in the European Parliament election by riding a wave of anger over Brexit delays
“If we don’t leave on that day, then you can expect the Brexit Party to repeat this kind of surprise in the next general election,” he said.
While no British leader would allow Farage near EU divorce talks, his proven ability to poach Brexit supporters from both the Conservative and Labour parties will stiffen a belief among leading Conservatives vying to replace May that they must go for a more decisive split from the EU.
Farage, often pictured with a glass of beer and an elastic grin, is one of Britain’s most recognizable politicians with a rare capacity to polarize opinion. He once posed with Donald Trump in a gilded lift, enraging the British establishment.
His flair for capturing the anger and disillusionment of Britain’s working classes regularly brought crowds out to hear him speak during an energetic campaign focused on deprived post-industrial areas of the country where voters feel left behind.
Critics accuse him of stoking anger over issues like immigration, and offering popular but simplistic solutions to complex problems like Brexit. One voter expressed his anger by showering Farage in a milkshake during a campaign appearance.
Despite spending two decades as an elected member of the European Parliament and making seven unsuccessful attempts to win a seat in the British parliament, he casts himself as an outsider shouting truth at a shambolic political elite.
“There’s a huge message here, the Labour and Conservative parties can learn a massive lesson tonight, though I don’t suppose they actually will,” he said.
Farage has been here before.
As leader of the Euroskeptic United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), he put so much pressure on the Conservatives that in 2013 then prime minister David Cameron promised a referendum.
Then, in 2014, he humiliated the Conservatives at European parliament elections. Farage went on to play a leading role in the successful 2016 referendum campaign, but then stepped away from frontline British politics.
However, after severing ties with UKIP, he has returned with a new party and a familiar mission. Accusing the establishment of betraying voters, he is promising to ensure Brexit happens.
“Never before in British politics has a new party, launched six weeks ago, topped the polls in a national election,” he said.