Nigel Farage, following David Cameron’s steps, has quit the UK Independence Party and avoided the political storm coming to the European country. Farage told the press he was moved by personal motives, and said he was satisfied with what he achieved by leading the UKIP, which means, both the conservative party and the UK are in the market for a leader, and it is not going to be easy. Brexit winning means a lot of problems for the people behind the steering wheel, and not everyone is up for the challenge.
Farage dropped the news on Monday stating he had done his bit to get the UK out of the European Union. Almost every member of the party praised the man for everything he has done with the group stating Brexit would have been impossible without him. However, Douglas Carswell posted a smiley on his Twitter account which the media took as the confirmation of an existing tension between the two men. In spite of these, Carswell, a strong candidate to replace Farage, said his post wasn’t related to anything, it was just an optimistic tweet.
David Cameron resigned soon after the referendum, claiming that he had failed to convince people to stay in the European Union, but there could be other reasons. As an EU-member country, the United Kingdom had to abide by a lot of rules and had the benefits of many commercial trades, but the situation immediately changed after the referendum. The new leaders must face what is yet to come to the UK after Brexit.
The campaign was not only offensive, but it might have been a little unrealistic
The campaign used to persuade British citizens to support leaving the European Union was full of what many call racist and hateful claims. However, there were real concerns that are affecting a lot of people. For instance, Nigel Farage devised the idea of a big red bus with a message on one of the sides saying “We send £350 million to the EU instead of investing them in the NHS,” and a lot of voters saw this as one of the most important reasons to leave the EU. However, in an interview the day after the referendum, a reporter asked Nigel Farage if he could guarantee that the £350 million that were being sent to the EU would go to the National Health Service. Farage answered he could not, and accepted that it was one of the mistakes the campaign made.
The other big issue the UKIP and another Brexit supporting parties addressed was the open border policy. According to them, the sheer amount of immigrants were destabilizing the British economy by making the job market more competitive and potentially reducing the minimum wage. But the fact that many of UKIP members have been reported to engage in racial slur makes a lot of people think the party was moved by racism. Regardless the reason, one of the things the “out” voters were promised was less immigration, but it just does not work like that. According to Thomas Sampson, from the London School of Economics, the United Kingdom could technically narrow its borders and make it difficult for migrants to come into the country. But if the country wants to remain part of the single market, it would have to maintain the open borders policy which is one of the most important factors of the trade agreements. In other words, it would be tough for any politician to keep on that promise.
There is a group of people wanting to assume the leadership
Farage’s decision of leaving politics leaves things unclear for the UKIP. Meanwhile, there is a lot of people rallying behind Carswell, who opposed many of the former president’s ideas and had been told to disapprove many of the political party’s objectives.
He is not the only one, though. UKIP members Peter Whittle, Suzanne Evans and Diane James, are among the candidates. It would be safe to count Whittle as one of the top players, he is the only LGBT community member endorsed by the organization, and he had significant success at the 2015 General Election beating both the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party. In contrast, Suzanne Evans was suspended from the party on March 23 after being one of the leading spokesmen, and Diane James stepped down an electoral process in 2014, due to “personal reasons” after the experts gave her 1.2% probabilities of winning. Recently, she has been facing the music after saying in a public speech that she admired Putin in 2015.
That would leave Paul Nuttall, who is known for his involvement in the “save the pubs” movement in London. He has openly expressed he wanted to loosen the regulations on bars in the country. He opposes abortions, and he has said the state needs to increase prisons max capacity, and in a very controversial statement, he said children and serial killers should apply for the capital punishment.
The other strong candidate would be Steven Woolfe, who has been a UKIP senior spokesperson for a long time. He was tasked with the migration policy, and he proposed the right to enter the UK should be earned by merit and not by race, religion or creed. He is also famous for his monetary policies. Woolfe has criticized the high amount of taxes the citizens have to pay. He even talked about exempting people on minimum wage from any tax.
It is too soon to say who is going to be in charge, but both Cameron and Farage’s decisions play a very significant role in the future result.
Source: CNN