Nigel Farage will always have more power outside Parliament

It’s easy to mock Nigel Farage over his decision to turn down an ‘easy win’ in Clacton or some other Westminster constituency in preference for the hard graft of the European Parliament and its excruciating regime of expenses and allowances. Easy, but quite likely wrong.  Whether or not he ever sets foot in Parliament, Farage can already claim to have changed British history. His role in the Brexit referendum result is debateable; his role in bringing about that referendum isn’t.  

Just in case the story needs retelling, Farage did it by forming a connection between two issues: Europe and immigration. Until that linkage was made, Ukip was an ignorable splinter of the Conservative Party. Afterwards, it was a movement capable of scaring David Cameron and his party into gambling Britain’s EU membership. 

And now it’s dying, like a bee after stinging. Farage fans say Ukip’s decline is happening because he’s stepped away.