British politician Nigel Farage resigns as leader of right-wing UKIP in wake of EU vote

Nigel Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP),
speaks at a news conference inl London July 4, 2016. (Neil Hall/Reuters)

LONDON — Right-wing firebrand and populist politician, Nigel Farage, resigned as leader of his U.K. Independence Party on Monday morning, saying he had “done his bit” as one of the chief campaigners for the country to leave the European Union.

The resignation is the latest in a series of political bombshells that have hit British politics in the wake of the popular vote to leave the 27-member bloc last month.

“I have never wanted to be a career politician. That is why I now feel that I've done my bit,” Farage said in a televised press conference in London on Monday. “I will watch the renegotiation process in Brussels like a hawk,” he said of talks expected between U.K. and E.U. leaders over the former’s exit from the union.

The vote, which was put to referendum by current Prime Minister David Cameron, shocked the world and plunged the U.K. in to political and economic turmoil.

Farage and the UKIP have taken a hard line against immigration and freedom of movement, a cornerstone of the E.U.

Farage said on Monday that if the government “gives in [to the E.U.] over free movement,” that “UKIP’s better days are yet to come.”

“I want my life back,” he said. Farage did not comment on who might succeed him as leader of the party, which gained the third largest share of the vote in the 2015 general election.