Nigel Farage - Brexit bogeyman turned UK power broker?

During nearly three decades in public life, Nigel Farage has risen from a Eurosceptic rabble-rouser on the fringes of British politics to a pivotal player who could make or break Brexit. The 55-year-old is readying to run candidates from his newly formed Brexit Party across Britain, threatening to divide those who voted “leave” in the 2016 European Union referendum and dealing a blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his ruling Conservatives. The strategy could make Farage a potential kingmaker in a hung parliament or backfire spectacularly if “remainers” seize enough seats and go on to block or even reverse Brexit. “The risk of the vote being split if very real,” he conceded on Friday at his election launch, before adding: “Without the Brexit Party we will never get a meaningful Brexit done.” It remains to be seen whether Farage, re-elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in May, can help disrupt parliament where the dominant two parties are facing pressure from smaller groups. But with Brexit the key issue in the December 12 election, a poll seen as one of the most unpredictable in British history, 2019 could finally see him win a seat in Westminster. If his Brexit Party candidates can repeat the feat across the country – or prove decisive in many contests – he will once again have had a profound impact on Britain’s future direction. The divorced father-of-four and vocal supporter of US President Donald Trump is on paper an unlikely populist, and appears to embody much of what he rails against. A privately-educated former commodities trader, Farage has served as an MEP in Brussels for 20 years. Yet he regularly lambasts “career politicians” and “the global elite”. Cheered by his supporters as a straight-talking, pint-swilling “everyman”, detractors accuse him of being a hypocrite who plays to racists and far-right ideologues. But love or loathe him, Farage has increasingly mainstream appeal in bitterly divided modern Britain. “There’s a massive sense of the showman,” said actor Paul Ryan, who portrayed him in a recent TV dramatisation of the 2016 Brexit vote. “He’s got a great sense of humour, he’s charismatic and he is a great communicator. I think that’s what makes him as potent as he is.” Farage was born in 1964 to an affluent family in Kent, southeast England. His father was a stockbroker and an alcoholic and his parents divorced when he was five. He was educated at one of England’s top private schools, Dulwich College, before working in the financial world. A larger-than-life figure, Farage has had several brushes with death. In 1985 he had a cancerous testicle removed, and was hit by a car after a night out in 1987, suffering serious head and leg injuries. Brexit Party triumphs in EU elections, as Tories score worst results in decades Once recovered, he married his nurse, and the couple had two sons. Following their divorce in 1997, Farage married second wife Kirsten Mehr, a German, with whom he has two daughters. They separated in 2017. His most recent scare came on general election day in May 2010 when a light aircraft he was in crashed after a campaign banner got caught in a propeller. He escaped relatively unscathed with just broken bones and a punctured lung. Farage’s political ascent began in 1993 when Britain, under the ruling Conservatives, joined in a process of deeper European integration. He quit the Tories in disgust to co-found the UK Independence Party, and six years later won election to the European Parliament aged 35. Farage had two stints at the helm of the party, while also making seven failed bids to become a British MP over the years. Castigating the EU and “out of control” immigration, UKIP slowly rose in popularity and in 2014 pulled off an unprecedented win in the European parliament elections. That heaped pressure on then prime minister David Cameron to call a referendum on EU membership that would eventually seal his demise. Farage was kept out of the official Leave campaign, which feared his brand was too divisive. But he maintained a high profile, hammering away at the immigration issue – and sparking enduring criticism by unveiling a poster of refugees under the slogan “breaking point”. The level of aggression and unpleasantness is constant Nigel Farage In the afterglow of victory, Farage stepped down as UKIP leader claiming his mission was complete. In interviews, he said the period had taken a heavy toll on him and his family. “My life is not easy,” he told the Daily Mail. “The level of aggression and unpleasantness is constant.” But Farage returned to frontline British politics earlier this year, founding the Brexit Party in response to the political paralysis that has prevented Britain leaving the EU. Suggesting bigger ambitions, he vowed the party’s Brexit struggles were just the first shots of “a revolution in British politics to end the two-party structure”.