Calls for electoral reform as party picks up 12% of vote and comes second in at least 90 seats, but fails to win targets such as South Thanet and loses Rochester

Nigel Farage resigned as Ukip leader on Friday after he failed to win the coastal Kent constituency of South Thanet from the Conservatives – but left open the possibility he may return after a leadership contest in the autumn.

Farage finished in second place behind Tory candidate Craig MacKinlay in what had been Ukip’s key target seat. Telling activists “I’m a man of my word”, he said he would step down since he had promised defeat would force him to quit.

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“I have just resigned as leader of Ukip. I have kept my promise. I have honoured what I said. I shall write to the NEC (National Executive Committee) in a minute. I shall recommend we put a caretaker leader in.”

The Ukip leader is however coming under pressure to rebut suggestions that he is wriggling out of that promise after he left open the possibility of standing in a leadership context later this year.

Farage insisted he was not walking away from the party. “I intend to take the summer off, enjoy myself, not do very much at all and then 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 and do that job again.”

Asked if he would consider standing again, he said: “I have absolutely no idea. Politics is about the last thing on my mind. You never rule anything in or anything out in life.”

Ben Quinn (@BenQuinn75) So is it really a resignation speech.. Or will Nigel Farage just have another go later on after a break? Leaves some Ambiguity

MacKinlay, the Tory winner in South Thanet, is a one-time Ukip member who held a senior position in the party before coming back to the Conservatives. He gained more than 18,000 votes to Farage’s 16,026. The Labour candidate Will Scobie finished in third place with 11,740 votes.



In his victory speech, he addressed the Ukip challenge in the constituency, which he said the party had hoped would be a “political earthquake” with Farage at the epicentre. “But the people have decided they don’t just want an MP who will stand and protest angrily from the sidelines,” he said.

Farage’s failure in South Thanet now throws up major questions about the future direction of the party. Ukip has suffered a frustrating election after gaining about 12% of the national vote for only one MP – Douglas Carswell in Clacton, who first took the seat in a byelection.

Alongside South Thanet, Ukip also failed to take Thurrock, Castle Point, or Great Grimsby, which were thought to be its next most likely targets. It furthermore lost Rochester, which Mark Reckless had won in a byelection after defecting from the Conservatives.



The party managed to get second place in at least 90 constituencies across the country, coming close to victory in seats including Boston & Skegness and Heywood & Middleton. Many of its advances were made in the north of England in Labour-held seats.

In his address speech, Farage said: “Yes, there’s a bit of me that’s disappointed but there’s a bit that’s happier than I have felt for years. It really has been unrelenting, seven days a week, occasionally let down by people who perhaps have not said or down the right thing.”

Ben Quinn (@BenQuinn75) Farage loses... Tories win Thanet #ge2015 shouts of "bye nigel" from floor

Ukip activists at the Margate count were however visibly downcast however after the party threw a large bulk of its campaign resources and people power into the seat. “It’s all been for nothing,” said one elderly female activist to a senior local official.



Farage said he would recommend Suzanne Evans, the deputy chairman and author of Ukip’s manifesto, to be a stand-in leader.

Of the future direction of Ukip he suggested it could become a younger organisation campaigning for - among other issues - electoral reform. He said older voters had turned from the party to the Conservatives “for fear of the SNP” but its support among under-30s had increased.

The party is now likely to campaign hard for voting reform after picking up about 2.5m votes across the country.

“What we have seen over the last few weeks are our older voters being squeezed and they have been replaced, even under a first-past-the-post system, by young men and women who are now supporting Ukip in real numbers.

“What we have got to do is turn it into a mass membership organisation that doesn’t just want to change our relationship with Europe and control immigration, but get positive electoral reform.”

In one of his first tweets on the result, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch referred to Ukip’s large share of the vote.



Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) Despite universal condemnation and terrible campaign, UKIP held huge vote. Cameron needs to remember.

A Ukip spokesman said: “In many constituencies we are the opposition, on behalf of working-class voters who have been neglected and taken for granted for decades. This is true of both northern England, where we are the opposition to Labour, and in southern England, where we are the opposition to the Conservatives.

“We’ve provided hope and truth for the electorate and driven the political agenda.”

