Nigel Farage to remain head of UKIP after party refuses to let him resign

Nigel Farage will remain head of Britain's anti-EU UK Independence Party despite tendering his resignation after failing to become an MP in last week's general election.

The party's National Executive Committee (NEC) refused Farage's resignation, saying that he had led UKIP's election campaign with "great success", despite the party winning only one seat in the House of Commons.

Farage said on Friday there would be a leadership election in September, and that he was mulling whether to run, after having promised to step down if he failed to win the Thanet South constituency. But the NEC "unanimously rejected" the offer, producing "overwhelming evidence that the UKIP membership did not want Nigel to go," said Steve Crowther, chairman of UKIP.

The party won almost four million votes across Britain in last week's general election - a 12.6 per cent share - but that only translated into one parliamentary seat due to Britain's first-past-the-post voting system, whereby votes for losing candidates in each constituency count for nothing.

"We have fought a positive campaign with a very good manifesto and … four million votes was an extraordinary achievement," added Crowther. "He [Farage] has therefore been persuaded by the NEC to withdraw his resignation and remains leader of UKIP."

Farage has been a constant thorn in the side of Prime Minister David Cameron, who was forced to tack to the right on the EU and immigration for fear of losing backbenchers to UKIP.