Nigel Farage's defeat speech in Thanet South - full text

The Ukip leader has failed to win Thanet South

Here is the full text of Ukip leader Nigel Farage's speech to the count in Thanet South upton learning of his defeat.

"The definition of whether you’re having a good day or a bad day – and many of you may think I’m having a bad day – but let me tell you, five years ago on election day I was in intensive care after an aeroplane crash so compared to that this feels pretty damn good.

"I do congratulate the Prime Minister – he has secured a Tory majority, something nobody thought was possible. Now, there was an earthquake this election, and it happened north of the border – it happened in Scotland.

"I think what you saw were a lot of voters so scared by that Labour-SNP coalition that they drifted towards the Conservatives and that included some of the people here who had voted Ukip last time around.

"But I saw another shift at this election: I saw Ukip, the party apparently for the retired old colonels suddenly as the party for people under 30: particularly young working women.

"There is a big change going on in politics and I think what is really interesting is that we’ve always been here to believe that Britain gets back its democracy, we shouldn’t be governed from Brussels.

"But what is interesting is what’s happening within our democracy in this country. We’ve got a party in Britain who got 50% the vote in one of the regions and nearly 100% of the seats and we’ve got another party that scored nearly as many votes, 4m, as well as the European elections last year, that has finished up with one seat in parliament and I think the time has come for real, genuine, radical political reform and I think it’s Ukip that’ll be the party that leads it.

"On a professional level I express today a degree of disappointment, on a personal level I believe an enormous weight has been lifted from my shoulders and I’ve never felt happier."