An open letter to Nigel Farage MEP from Nikki Sinclaire MEP 3rd October 2009 Re: Your Leadership Dear Nigel, After much consideration, I feel it is incumbent upon me to write you this letter. I beseech you to reconsider your resignation as Party Leader, for the sake of UKIP, our cause and, more importantly, our country. In all good conscience, I cannot see the sense of an internal election, costing more than £25,000, less than six months prior to a General Election campaign. I think it essential for the party to keep its eye on the ball and prepare for the election. I completely concur with your judgment that you have too many responsibilities and you must prioritise. However, I respectively suggest that, in the short term, you have chosen the wrong priorities. We need you to lead the fight here in the UK, to spearhead our campaign as only you can do. I cannot understand why you can't delegate some of your Brussels responsibilities to one of your 12 MEPs. You could still hold the title of EFD Co-President and give your wonderful plenary speeches but spend only six days a month in the parliament (as promised in your leadership election campaign). You led us to an historic victory this year and have taken us to the centre ground of British politics, winning Labour strongholds such as Stoke, Newcastle under Lyme, Dudley, Plymouth , Sunderland, Hartlepool and others. Yet UKIP did not win one single Conservative stronghold and, if you step down, the party could be seen once again as an offshoot of the Tory party if the leadership race went as many expect, thereby costing us votes. I also ask you to honour your pledge to the UKIP members - who elected you for a four-year term - to see out that commitment. The last thing the party needs now is a couple of months navel gazing. We certainly need a debate on the direction of the party in the near future but preferably after a General Election. If we are to have a leadership race, a race that will elect a leader, according to our constitution, not just for the forthcoming General Election but for the next European Election and possibly a second General Election, we must debate some key issues now in order to give a new leader a strong mandate. This mandate will have to make difficult decisions, such as UKIPâ