Farage was unsuccessful in his bid to become MP for South Thanet although he came second (beating Labour by over 4,000 votes), reduced the Conservative majority to less than 3,000, and gained over 32% of the vote. He subsequently announced his resignation as the leader of UKIP, citing that he is a "man of his word" since he promised to resign if he did not win his seat. However, on 11 May 2015, the party chairman said they would not accept Mr Farage's post-election resignation because the party's "election campaign had been a great success".