 Farage has stood for election to the House of Commons seven times, in five general elections and two by-elections, but has not won any of those elections.He was also a proponent of the UK leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum, in which the electorate voted to do so by 52% to 48%.Farage was voted UKIP leader in the September 2006 leadership election, and led them in the 2009 European Parliament election in which his party won the second-highest number of votes and seats after the Conservative Party.