Farage Quits After Westminster Bid Fails

Nigel Farage is standing down as UKIP leader after failing to win Thanet South.

Talking about his promise to quit if he lost, Mr Farage, said: "I'm a man of my word."

However, he did not rule out putting his name forward again in the leadership election in September.

Mr Farage said he would recommend Suzanne Evans, the deputy chairman, be a stand-in leader until the contest is held.

He also branded as "bankrupt" the current first-past-the-vote system, which gave the SNP 56 seats and UKIP one, despite securing a comparable number of votes.

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The pollster Lord Ashcroft has also pointed out UKIP came second in 118 seats.

Mr Farage was defeated in Thanet South by almost 3,000 votes - his Tory rival polled 18,838, while he secured 16,026.

Announcing his resignation, he said: "I'm a man of my word, I shall be writing to the UKIP national executive in a few minutes, saying I am standing down as leader of UKIP.

"I shall recommend that ... they put in place as acting leader Suzanne Evans who I think has emerged from this campaign as an absolute tower of strength within UKIP."

He added: "Personally, there's a bit of me that is disappointed but there is a bit of me that feels better than I have felt for many, many years.

"It really has been seven days a week, totally unrelenting, and occasionally let down by people who perhaps haven't said and done the right things.

"I haven't had a fortnight's holiday since October 1993. I intend to take the summer off, enjoy myself a bit.

"There will be a leadership election for the next leader of UKIP in September and I will consider over the course of this summer whether to put my name forward to do that job again."

In his concession speech at the count, Mr Farage congratulated the Prime Minister on his win and spoke about the SNP's success in Scotland.

Mr Farage said: "There was an earthquake in this election. It happened in Scotland, and I think what you saw were a lot of voters so scared of that Labour-SNP coalition that they shifted towards the Conservatives.

"But I saw another shift in this election and I saw UKIP, the party apparently for the retired old colonels, suddenly the party for people under 30, particularly young working women.

"There is a big change going on in politics, and what is really interesting, we've always believed that Britain needs to get back its democracy.

"We shouldn't be governed from Brussels, but what is interesting is what is happening within our democracy in this country.

"We have a party in Britain who have got 50% of the vote in one of the regions and almost 100% of the seats.

"And we have another party that scored almost as many votes, four million, as well as the European elections last year, that has finished up with one seat in parliament.

"I think the time has come from real, genuine, radical political reform, and it is UKIP who will be the party that leads it."

He added: "On a professional level, I express today a degree of disappointment.

"On a personal level I feel an enormous weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I've never felt happier."

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His defeat follows a night of frustration for the party with Mark Reckless - who had been one of the party's only two MPs - also losing in Rochester and Strood.

It leaves the party with just one seat in Parliament - despite it winning the third-highest number of votes across the country.

Douglas Carswell held the Clacton seat he was re-elected to after defecting from the Conservative Party in 2014, but with a reduced majority.

He also blamed the electoral system for the party's failure to secure bigger representation in Parliament, describing it as "dysfunctional".

Mr Carswell, who received 19,642 votes to Tory rival Giles Watling's 16,205, said: "Here, in our part of Essex, people voted UKIP and they got UKIP.