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Tuesday, Aug 18, 2026

‘It’s over’: Nigel Farage quits politics for good

‘It’s over’: Nigel Farage quits politics for good

Nigel Farage, the grassroots Brexit politician largely credited with pressuring David Cameron into having an EU referendum, has quit politics for good.

Mr Farage was the leader of the UK Independence Party until he famously quit after the 2016 Leave vote.

However, he made a sensational return two years later to form the Brexit Party, which later became the Reform Party, as a reaction to the government’s negotiations with the European Union.

Now, it seems, he has finally had enough.

“There’s no going back - Brexit is done,” he told the Sunday Telegraph’s Chopper Politics podcast.

“That won’t be reversed. I know I’ve come back once or twice when people thought I’d gone, but this is it. It’s done. It’s over”.

Mr Farage said he didn’t want to play golf “four times a week followed by half a pint of bitter” but instead intended to campaign against China’s influence in the UK and what he called the “woke agenda”.

“I see our communities being divided more than ever by this agenda. And I’m very worried about it. I want to fight all those things,” he said.

“I have built up over these years quite a considerable social media platform. I’ve got reach. So I want to go on influencing the debate. I want to go on changing debate. But I can do that without going out and fighting elections”.

Mr Farage was originally a member of the Conservative Party but left after John Major signed the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, the foundation treaty of the European Union.

He married Gráinne Hayes in 1988 and the couple had two children, Samuel and Thomas, before divorcing in 1997.

The 56-year-old later married Kirsten Farage in 1992 and the pair had two children.

In 2017, Mrs Farage told the Press Association that the couple were living "separate lives" and that Mr Farage had "moved out of the family home a while ago".

Mr Farage told the Chopper Politics podcast “the really difficult bit” of politics was the “way it affects those close to you, your family, your children”.

In a video statement posted on Twitter on Saturday night, Mr Farage said Brexit had been his “life’s work” and had taken over “the best part of three decades” but now is the time to step away.

The news of Mr Farage’s departure from politics comes after Laurence Fox announced he is campaigning to be the next Mayor of London.

Mr Fox has also become an outspoken critic against so-called “wokeism” and said he is standing as mayor to “offer a voice to those who are being dominated into silence”.

The actor announced in September that he was launching a political party for the “reclamation” of British values.

His anti-woke Reclaim Party was approved by the Electoral Commission last month and he has previously spoken about his mission to oppose being “woke” for the “rest of his days”.

Mr Fox told the Telegraph that “public debate has been strangled”.

He referenced recent protests which saw campaigners call for statues, many of which are dedicated to famous Britons who profited from the Transatlantic slave trade, be removed.

Mr Fox said he was angered by the “disrespect being shown to the sacrifices made by previous generations to protect our values, tolerance and freedom”.

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