Nigel Farage

Nigel Paul Farage (; born 3 April 1964) is a British broadcaster and former politician who was Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Brexit Party (renamed Reform UK in 2021) from 2019 to 2021. He served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 1999 until the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union in 2020. He was the host of The Nigel Farage Show, a radio phone-in on the Global-owned talk radio station LBC, from 2017 to 2020. Farage is currently the Honorary President of Reform UK and a presenter for GB News. Known as a prominent Eurosceptic since the early 1990s, Farage campaigned for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. Farage was a founding member of UKIP, having left the Conservative Party in 1992 after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which furthered European integration and founded the European Union. After campaigning unsuccessfully in European and Westminster parliamentary elections from 1994, he was elected MEP for South East England in the 1999 European Parliament election. He was re-elected in the 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019 European Parliament elections. In the European Parliament, he was the President of Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) where he was noted for his speeches, and as a vocal critic of the euro currency. He became the leader of UKIP in September 2006, and led the party through the 2009 European elections, when it won the second-highest share of the UK popular vote, with over 2 million votes. He stepped down in November 2009 to focus on contesting Buckingham, the constituency of the Speaker, John Bercow, at the 2010 general election, and came third. Farage successfully stood in the November 2010 UKIP leadership contest, becoming leader once again after Lord Malcolm Pearson voluntarily stepped down. He was ranked second in The Daily Telegraph Top 100 most influential right-wingers poll in 2013, behind Prime Minister David Cameron. Farage was named "Briton of the Year" by The Times in 2014.