LONDON — Nigel Farage, the man credited by many with pressing the British government into holding a referendum on the European Union, announced Monday that he was standing down as leader of the populist, right-wing UK Independence Party.

Farage, 52, said that he had “done my bit,’’ achieved his central ambition, and left his party in a “pretty good place’’ in the wake of Britain’s vote June 23 to quit the 28-nation bloc.

“I have never been, and I have never wanted to be, a career politician,’’ he said. “My aim of being in politics was to get Britain out of the European Union.’’

Monday was not the first time Farage said he would quit the party leadership: He made a similar promise after the 2015 general election — when he failed to win a seat in the British Parliament — only to change his mind.

As a member of the UK Independence Party, Farage has campaigned for more than 15 years to leave the European Union.

His success alarmed lawmakers of the Conservative Party of Prime Minister David Cameron, who, under pressure, promised in 2013 to call an in-or-out referendum. After the Conservatives’ surprising victory in last year’s general election, Cameron was compelled to make good on that promise.

Farage remains a member of the European Parliament, to which he was first elected in 1999. On June 28, after the referendum, Farage taunted fellow lawmakers in Brussels.

“When I came here 17 years ago and said I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me,’’ he said to jeers and groans. “Well, you’re not laughing now.’’

His colleagues in the European Parliament were not sorry to see him go. “#NigelFarage is the latest coward to abandon the chaos he is responsible for,’’ Manfred Weber, a German member of the European Parliament, wrote on Twitter. “This shows that he has no credibility at all.’’