Nigel Farage has insisted he has “phenomenal” support within Ukip even as a bitter civil war over his leadership threatened to tear the party apart.
Speaking on Question Time on BBC1, Mr Farage admitted that he had “faults” in his personality, but claimed Ukip members wanted “leaders that have actually had a job in the real world, and have some experience of life”.
He also sought to downplay the divisions that have emerged since polling day, saying: “The election’s over, people are letting off steam, and we’ve seen one or two people fighting personal wars against each other.”
After resigning the leadership a week ago only to back out of the decision at the urging of the party executive committee three days later, Mr Farage told the audience that changing leader would be wrong with an EU referendum looming.
When asked whether he would resign to stand in a leadership election, Mr Farage claimed that holding a contest in the run up to a possible referendum next year would be “a massive, massive mistake.”
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He said “My guess is that referendum will be in May next year and for Ukip to spend three months on a leadership campaign would have been a huge mistake.”
He also announced that Ukip would not accept any of the £3million in public money - known as “Short Money” - it is entitled to after winning the support of four million voters at the election.
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He said: “I’m going to recommend that we don’t accept any of it. Given we’ve had an argument over this, I don’t want Ukip to look like other parties, grubbing around after public money.”
Mr Farage had previously promised to resign the leadership if he lost the South Thanet constituency at the general election and followed through on his pledge within minutes of defeat being confirmed. The U-turn came after party officials said he retained strong backing from party members.
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