Mission Accomplished?

Farage is stepping down at a crucial point in his fight for UK independence

In the aftermath of the EU referendum, the Remain backers have had to face the consequences of their loss. David Cameron announced his plans to step down almost immediately after the result was announced. Corbyn, while still the Labour leader, has faced a vote of no confidence, and looks set to have to contest a leadership election. Now, however, the ‘winner’ of the referendum (if there is such a thing) Nigel Farage, has also stepped down, in a complete wildcard move.

There is a lot of speculation that many Leave campaigners within the Conservative party are panicked now that they’ve actually won. Many feel that Johnson, Gove and others are aware that leaving the EU will be bad for Britain, and only supported the Leave campaign to help their future prospects of leading the party. Now, faced with actually having to strike a deal with Brussels and be held accountable for everything that brings, they’re not so wildly enthusiastic.

Surely not good old straight talking Nige though? As he said in his resignation speech, he’s done his bit, he’s achieved his political ambition, and now he can return to whatever it is he does in his spare time.

This doesn’t quite add up, though. Does Farage really feel that he’s achieved all he wanted to? That there is nothing more for him to accomplish? Or is he, perhaps, ducking out of the limelight, before the reality of the Brexit that he campaigned for sets in?

At first glance, it looks like Farage is right. UKIP was founded with the aim of pulling Britain out of the EU, and with the country choosing to leave in the referendum, they have been successful. There has been a little talk of parliament simply choosing to ignore the will of the people and keeping the UK within the EU, but this is unrealistic; the UK will leave the Union.

However, Farage’s battle is not won. It’s clear from his campaigning over the years that he had specific outcomes he wanted to achieve from Brexit — for example tighter immigration controls and freedom from Brussels regulations. These things are not yet secured, and really this is as crucial a time for UKIP as any. As the Conservatives begin to plan an exit deal for the EU, if Farage truly cared for his cause, he would want to be a loud voice, pressuring the Tories to forge a deal that he agrees with.

Many Conservatives who backed Leave did so for different reasons to Farage, and as mentioned above, some may not even believe in the cause at all. In their joint victory speech, Johnson and Gove were both (to my ears) playing down a lot of the central aims of the Leave campaign. The Tories may well end up trying to secure British membership to the European Economic Area (EEA), which could entail continued freedom of movement from EU countries, adherence to some EU regulations and significant contributions to the EU budget.

In this context, Farage’s claims of having achieved all he set out to do ring hollow. If we do join the EEA, it would be a horrendous loss for UKIP. We would be out of the EU, but many of the parts of the Union that they dislike most would still apply to us, and whats more, the issue would be wiped off the political agenda — if we do join the EEA, our membership of that organisation would not be up for negotiation for a long time.

I have to suspect, then, that Farage is stepping down because he knows what’s ahead. He knows that whatever deal the UK ends up, many who voted leave will be unhappy, because it will fall short of what they hoped for. And if/when that disappointment turns to anger at those who campaigned persuaded them to vote leave, he doesn’t want to be around to bear the brunt of it.