Nigel Farage to contest UKIP leadership (again)

Former leader of UKIP Nigel Farage who failed earlier this year in yet another bid to become an MP has now decided he wants to be leader again.

Former Conservative, Lord Pearson of Rannoch indicated just last month that he was planning to stand down as leader of UKIP concluding he neither enjoys, nor has an aptitude for, conducting party politics.

Last month I predicted that Nigel Farage would throw his hat in the ring again, despite at the time saying;

"I'm not going to say I'm absolutely not going to do the job again but I've got to decide, in the wake of that accident, whether I'm strong enough to take the job on."

I said last month of Nigel Farage;

I think given the size of Nigel Farage's ego, he will contest it again, and UKIP will continue to be nothing more than the single issue party they are.

Anti European but their MEPs seem happy to take the salaries. Very strange.

Well, two more of those MEPs are joining Nigel Farage in trying to leader of UKIP, David Campbell Bannerman and Gerard Batten have also said they will contest the leadership contest - expected to take place in November.
Party officials meeting at UKIP's annual conference in Torquay have chosen Jeffrey Titford to take temporary charge.

Nigel Farage declared his candidacy today, saying he was best placed to communicate UKIP's policies to the media and public and get more party representatives elected at local level.

"I believe I can lead the party from the front as a campaigning organisation," he said.

The BBC's political correspondent Ross Hawkins said Mr Farage had asked delegates assembled in Torquay whether they wanted him to stand for the top job and they had responded enthusiastically.

Mr Campbell Bannerman said UKIP had to improve its organisation, since it had the potential to win 20 seats at the next election if the public backed changes to the voting system at a referendum next May.

"We have got to get more professional to seize the opportunities of the future," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Mr Batten - who came second in the 2009 election contest - said he was popular with party members and would make UKIP "more radical" and broaden its electoral appeal.