Nigel Farage will start new party if ‘anti-Muslim’ candidate wins UKIP leadership
UKIP leadership hopeful Anne Marie Waters rejects being labelled ‘far-right,’ but her staunch anti-Islam policies could be enough to convince Nigel Farage to leave his beloved party and form a new pro-Brexit movement.
Farage is to announce the formation of a ‘new UKIP’ in Strasbourg next month if leadership favorite Waters wins the contest, the Mail on Sunday reports.
As Prime Minister Theresa May has effectively postponed the UK’s withdrawal from the EU until 2021 by requesting a transition period, Farage intends to form a new party to counter her “Brexit sell-out.”
Farage, who resigned as UKIP leader following the EU referendum last year, was infuriated by Waters’ claim that millions of Britons agree that Islam is “evil.”
Waters is director of pressure groups Sharia Watch and helped launch Pegida UK, the regional branch of Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West.
If she turns out to be successful in the leadership contest, Farage will form a new party with the help of long-time donor Arron Banks.
On Saturday night, Banks said: “If Ms Waters becomes UKIP leader, all we ask is that she gives the party a decent burial.
“The country needs an effective political movement to stop May from selling out on the Brexit which British people voted for last year.”
Amid fears UKIP would become a party focusing solely on anti-immigration policies, it is expected that most of the 19 MEPs will pledge allegiance to Farage’s new brainchild.
UKIP has seen its popularity plunge ever since the EU referendum because of constant disagreements within the party, which was largely seen to have lost its purpose.
Although acknowledging the crucial role UKIP played in influencing the Leave vote, Banks suggested it has now become obsolete.
“UKIP started the ball rolling, but the world has moved on,” he told the paper.
“With its remorseless infighting, and absence of a clearly defined mission, it is not fit to spearhead a great national movement in its current form. It’s too traditional.
“Structurally, it is a mess, held together by rubber bands and by the extraordinary stamina of one man, Nigel Farage.
“It is clear that something new is required.”
