Nigel Farage (Photo: Gage Skidmore)
THE UK Independence Party is “100% united” as Britain prepares for an EU referendum, its leader has claimed despite a troubled post-election period.
Nigel Farage said other parties were “very, very divided” and attributed the divisions in UKIP’s ranks in recent days to “the pressure cooker atmosphere” of campaigning.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “What has happened in Ukip is, since the election, after the pressure cooker atmosphere of a campaign office, one or two regrettable things were said and done by a very small number of people.
“But I tell you where this leaves Ukip going into this referendum campaign, unlike the other parties – united, 100% united. We have for over 20 years fought hard to make the EU an issue.
“We were told we were the mad men from the hills for even considering whether Britain could have a future outside of political union and we now have a referendum on this subject. We are united; the other parties are very, very divided.”
UKIP’s economic spokesman Patrick O’Flynn stepped down from his role yesterday and apologised to his leader for calling him “snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive” in public.
He will continued as member of the European Parliament for the party.
Mr Farage said in Wednesday’s interview that Europe was an important market but “declining every single year”, and that Britain would be “far better off” if it was able to make its own deals with countries around the world.
He said: “The Ukip argument, the positive argument, is that we are living in a global economy, we’ve got emerging economies, many of them incidentally Commonwealth countries and we are unable as we are stuck in this customs union called the EU, we’re unable to make our own trade deals, with any other part of the world.
“What we’re saying is that actually as a trading nation, we’d be far better off with our hands free to make our own deals across the globe.”
