The son of a stockbroker, Nigel Paul Farage was born in 1964 in Kent.

His alcoholic father, Guy Oscar Justus Farage, walked out on the family when Nigel was just five.

The young Farage attended a fee-paying college in a leafy part of London.

Instead of going to university in the early 1980s, he opted for a career in the City of London as a commodities trader.

But his interest in politics grew. In 1993 he founded Ukip, after leaving the Conservative Party in protest over the UK Government signing the Maastricht Treaty with its pledge to ever closer union.

In his early 20s, he had the first of a number of brushes with death when he was run over by a car after a night in the pub. Doctors feared he would lose a leg. Grainne Hayes, his nurse, became his first wife.

They had two sons, both now grown up> He has two daughters with his current German wife, Kirsten Mehr, whom he married in 1999, the year of Ukip’s breakthrough when it won three seats in Brussels, including Mr Farage’s representing south east England.

Just months after recovering from the road accident, Mr Farage was diagnosed with testicular cancer from which he made a full recovery. The experiences made him determined to make the most of life.

In 2010, a year after Ukip increased its number of MEPs to 13, he created headlines when he attacked Herman van Rompuy, president of the European Council, saying he had the “charisma of a damp rag,” and asking: “Who are you?”

On the day of the 2010 general election, Mr Farage was involved in a plane crash, which left him with long-term injuries. “It's made me more 'me' than I was before, to be honest. Even more fatalistic…even more convinced it's not a dress rehearsal. Even more driven…”

After Ukip last year won the UK's European election, gaining 27.5 per cent of the vote, having previously gained 161 seats in the English local elections, Mr Farage’s profile, at least south of the border, grew.

After failing for the fifth time to become an MP last year, Mr Farage resigned as Ukip leader, only later to unresign.

The Kent politician’s capacity to cause controversy continued in the EU referendum when he unveiled a “breaking point” poster about immigration but which pictured refugees fleeing persecution.

Unfazed by the criticism and indefatigable in his campaigning, Mr Farage said he had achieved his political ambition in securing Britain’s departure from the EU. But for the next few years he will continue as an MEP to ensure Brexit is delivered.