Nigel Farage Quits as Reform Party Leader, Will Focus on Media Career

Lily Zhou
3/7/2021
Updated:
3/8/2021

Former Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage on Saturday said he was stepping down as the party leader of Reform UK, but will continue his career in media.

Richard Tice, chairman of the Reform UK, is to take over as the party leader of the former Brexit Party that’s been repurposed to oppose lockdowns.

Farage said he supports everything the party stands for, and will have an honorary position within the party.

The announcement came on the same day that Laurence Fox, the founder of the anti-woke and anti-lockdown Reclaim Party, announced his candidacy for London mayor.
Richard Tice (R) listens as Nigel Farage speaks during the launch of the Brexit Party at BG Penny & Co, in Coventry, England, on April 12, 2019. (Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
Richard Tice (R) listens as Nigel Farage speaks during the launch of the Brexit Party at BG Penny & Co, in Coventry, England, on April 12, 2019. (Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

Farage, who as leader of the eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) applied pressure on the government to hold the 2016 EU referendum, said the Brexit Party has helped the Conservatives “come to their senses” and chose Boris Johnson as their leader with a pro-Brexit agenda.

The lifelong Brexiteer said that the Brexit deal has not been “perfect,” but the issues will be “ironed out in time.”

“Northern Ireland has been effectively cut off from the rest of the country; French boats and trawlers still operating up to six miles from the British coast; and difficulties, some import/export difficulties, ” he said, “although I’m sure they will be ironed out in time.”

Farage said he now felt he could do as much to shift public opinion through media and social media as he could as a campaigning party leader.

“There are lots of other things that I want to fight for and campaign for,” he said.

On Jan. 1, Farage said that “2021 begins my next campaign, and that is to make sure we are no longer dependent on China,” in a video titled “Stopping China is the next big battle to fight.”

“In particular, the increasing influence of the Chinese Communist Party over our whole way of life.”

The second issue Farage said he wants to campaign for is critical thinking in education to resist “indoctrination of our children at school.”

And lastly, “there are some environmental causes that I care strongly about, such as the health of our oceans, and let’s get planting trees,” the former MEP said.

Reuters contributed to this report.