Farage wins South Thanet in 2015

[pragmaticidealist]

What if Nigel Farage had pulled off a win in South Thanet in the 2015 election?

It is likely that both he and UKIP would have played a more central role in the EU referendum campaign in this scenario. Would this have put off enough swing voters to ensure a Remain victory? 

[carlton43]

Jul 29, 2018 18:09:50 GMT pragmaticidealist said:

What if Nigel Farage had pulled off a win in South Thanet in the 2015 election?

It is likely that both he and UKIP would have played a more central role in the EU referendum campaign in this scenario. Would this have put off enough swing voters to ensure a Remain victory? 

No and No.

[Deleted]

No. Farage played a pretty central role anyway, and either didn't put enough swing voters off or actually won some over. Given that these people believe any old crap on the side of a bus, I'd say the latter.

[swanarcadian]

I suspect Farage regrets quitting as UKIP leader so soon after the referendum, as though everything was done and dusted.  He might have been able to exert a little more influence on government policy by keeping the UKIP threat alive in a way that his successors have been unable to do. 
Whether he would have been an MP or not probably wouldn't have made a great deal of difference, and the likelihood is that he would have lost his seat or retired in 2017 anyway.

[timrollpickering]

Well Farage made the promise to step down immediately if he was unsuccessful so we probably wouldn't have had the Suzanne Evans Weekend. But beyond not enduring a few weeks of ridicule that in the end made no impact I'm not sure what difference it would have made except to Craig Mackinlay and Donna Edmunds. Farage is one of the few politicians who has managed to defy the rule that a lack of a Westminster seat makes you irrelevant