'We have done it': Meet the architect of Brexit, Ukip's Nigel Farage

“I say with some pride, this would never have happened without Ukip. It is, in many ways, our referendum.”

The UK’s departure from the European Union is almost certain, with shockwaves hitting stock markets across the world . This comes a day after UK Independence Party (Ukip) leader Nigel Farage has pocketed a lion’s share of the credit for the referendum actually taking place. And in the early hours of Friday morning, he made this extremely inappropriate statement — particularly so considering the killing of British MP and Remain campaigner Jo Cox last week.

“And we’ll have done it without a single bullet being fired” - Nigel Farage  https://t.co/slOCKdj5NP https://t.co/94oLp0gOvZ

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 24, 2016

Now, nearly 24 hours later, Farage has hailed the UK’s response to the EU referendum as “ a victory for real people, a victory for ordinary people, a victory for decent people”. Naturally, reactions to the EU referendum vote have been flowing in thick and fast, with some praising the Ukip leader:

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Without Nigel Farage we'd still be kowtowing to Brussels. Now a new age of politics where people count can commence. https://t.co/znICdT8dJl

— Peter Gunn (@CaptJolyon) June 24, 2016

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And others, far less complimentary:

Nobody taught Neil Hamilton and Nigel Farage the art of winning with grace. Their braggadocio is so very unBritish. Not sporting at all.

— Tania Kindersley (@taniakindersley) June 24, 2016

Just in case #Brexit has saddened you here's Nigel farage after a plane crash x pic.twitter.com/yujFLddnC6

— RIVAS🇬🇼 (@rxvaldo) June 24, 2016

But Farage isn’t satisfied with just getting the UK out of the EU. He wants the results of the referendum to echo across the continent.

“We have done it… For the whole of Europe.  I hope this victory brings down this failed project and leads us to a Europe of sovereign nations, trading together, being friends together, cooperating together.  And let’s get rid of the flag, the (EU) anthem, Brussels and all that has gone wrong.” 

So just who is Nigel Farage, the man who has emerged as the architect of the Leave movement? [caption id=“attachment_2853318” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A file image of a Ukip poster calling for Britain to leave the EU. Reuters[/caption] A man who started his professional life as a commodity broker, Farage’s biggest contribution to Brexit is quite likely the way he turned immigration into the central theme of the EU referendum. In the past, he has spoken out on Muslim immigrants, pointing out that “people who’ve come (to Britain) and who are of the Muslim religion who don’t want to become part of our culture” are the problem. Perhaps, foreshadowing Britain’s EU exit, Farage in 2014 said that he would be concerned if “ a group of Romanian men moved in” next door to him. And just last year and in light of the Syrian refugee crisis, the Ukip leader seemed to express a bit of empathy, and called for Britain to accept refugees from Syria… but only the Christian ones. It was in 1993, at the age of 29, that Farage co-founded the Ukip after leaving the Conservative Party following a disagreement over… wait for it… then prime minister John Major’s signing of the Treaty on the European Union. Since then, he has been elected to the European Parliament in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. And in 2006, he was elected leader of the Ukip. Apart from immigration reform, his other positions include being critical of the EU’s ‘ green ambitions’ that have been pushed on the UK, maintaining an anti-prohibitionist stand on recreational drugs, and advocating doing away with the ‘first past the post’ electoral system and the smoking ban in closed public spaces. Unsurprisingly (probably), he has mentioned that he would back Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the US Presidential Election in November this year and has made no bones about his admiration for Russian president Vladimir Putin. What will he do next? Only time will tell.