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Farage Nigel Biography

British politician and the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) since 2010; he also held that position from September 2006 to November 2009. Since 1999, he has been a Member of the European Parliament for South East England; he also co-chairs the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group. The UKIP aims for Britain to leave the European Union. Farage is a founding member of the UKIP, having left the Conservative Party in 1992 after they signed the Maastricht Treaty. Having unsuccessfully campaigned in European and Westminster parliamentary elections for UKIP since 1994, he gained a seat as an MEP for South East England in the 1999 European Parliament Election — the first year the regional list system was used — and was re-elected in 2004 and 2009. Farage describes himself as a libertarian and rejects the notion that he is a conservative. On 6 May 2010, on the morning the polls opened in the election, just before eight oclock Farage was involved in a light aircraft crash, suffering injuries described as non-life-threatening. Although his injuries were originally described as minor, his sternum and ribs were broken, and his lung punctured. The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report said that the aeroplane was towing a banner, which caught in the tailplane, forcing the nose down. On 1 December 2010, the pilot of the aircraft involved in the accident was charged with threatening to kill Farage in a separate incident. He was also charged with threatening to kill an AAIB official involved in the investigation into the accident. In April 2011, the pilot was found guilty of making death threats. Farage has been married twice. He married Gráinne Hayes in 1988, with whom he had two children: Samuel (1989) and Thomas (1991). The marriage was dissolved in 1997. In 1999 he married Kirsten Mehr, a German national, by whom he has two more children, Victoria (born 2000) and Isabelle (born 2005). Farage resigned as leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party on 4 July 2016. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less