WI: Nigel Farage remains a Conservative

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
So, in my continuing series of 'What if [person] remained [political party]', I ask you all, what if Nigel Farage, the current leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, remained a Conservative in 1992?

I should put some background to why he left in the first place if the links don't tempt you. Nigel Farage was a Eurosceptic Tory who, in 1992, left the Conservative Party in protest of then Prime Minister, John Major, signing the Maastricht Treaty. He went onto become a founding member of UKIP, which he would go on to lead from 2006-2009, then 2010-present. He also ran and won a place in the European Parliament, where his reception has been mixed, for a lack of a better world, and has been described by defectors of the party as "Stalinist" and "Authoritarian" (Though the reliability of these claims have been challenged).

But yeah, what if Farage remained a member in 1992?
 
Farage himself might go back to the City after the Tories' defeats in 1997 and 2001. Or he could end up as the leader of the Eurosceptic wing in the Conservative Party. I think he might have become a leading ally of Cameron when he pushed the Tories out of the European People's Party faction in Brussels - possibly making this move already earlier.

UKIP would be dominated by Alan Sked. As he recently talked about the necessity of a "left-wing Eurosceptic party", UKIP might become a populist, anti-Maastricht, but more liberal party than in OTL. Meanwhile the right-wingers forming UKIP's OTL constituency would probably throw their weight behind another Eurosceptic force, possibly the Referendum Party.
 
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