Only Brexit voters can save Nigel Farage from himself now

Nigel Farage last painted himself into a corner at the end of the 2015 general election. Now he has done it again. And Farage’s only hope is that Brexit voters can save him from himself.

In the lead-up to that election, Farage foolishly spiced up a serialisation of his autobiography by declaring it would be ‘curtains’ for him – and that he would quit as Ukip leader – if he failed to win in South Thanet.

Of course, he didn’t win. And early the next day, Farage duly called a clifftop press conference to declare that, being a man of his word, he was indeed standing down as Ukip leader. The irony was that the national election result he had done so much to shape meant his long-cherished referendum on leaving the EU was now in the offing, just as he was relegating himself into the ranks of has-beens.

A few months later, Farage was back to ride to the rescue. Suzanne Evans (who had been installed as interim party leader by personal diktat) Paul Nuttall (Farage’s loyal but overlooked deputy) and Douglas Carswell (the party’s one MP) were all deeply put out with Farage, feeling that he had treated the party purely as a vehicle for his personality cult.

Some four and a bit years later, the Farage ego has once again backed itself into a corner.