The

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

(UKIP) held a leadership election in September 2006. The Eurosceptic party had been led since 2002 by

Roger Knapman Roger Maurice Knapman (born 20 February 1944) is a British politician who served as a Conservative MP before becoming Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Early life The son of Harry Arthur Blackmore Knapman, a farmer, and Joan Margot n ...

. Although he was entitled to stand for second term of office on the expiry of his four-year term, he decided not to.Dave Harvey,
West: UKIP flower fades
, ''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'', 8 June 2006

Candidates

Four candidates stood in the election: *

Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage (; born 3 April 1964) is a British broadcaster and former politician who was Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Brexit Party (renamed Reform UK in 2021) from 2 ...

was an MEP for

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...

, and the group's leader in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

. He called for the party to avoid being seen as a single issue pressure group, by focussing campaigning on low taxation,

selective education A selective school is a school that admits students on the basis of some sort of selection criteria, usually academic. The term may have different connotations in different systems and is the opposite of a comprehensive school, which accepts all ...

and a distinctive trade policy. He was viewed as the highest-profile candidate, and was backed by the party's largest donor, Alan Bown. * Richard Suchorzewski, the Chair of UKIP Wales, had defected from the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

in 2004, and called for the party to develop greater internal democracy, with the formation of a governing committee who would liaise with members on policy initiatives. He also wanted to prioritise the recruitment of more members under 40 and for party leaders to be based permanently in the UK. He attracted the backing of former chairman Petrina Holdsworth. *

David Campbell Bannerman David Campbell Bannerman (born 28 May 1960 in Bombay, India) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East of England from 2009 to 2019. He is currently Chairman of The Freedom Asso ...

was a former

councillor and former chairman of the

Bow Group The Bow Group is a UK-based think tank promoting conservative opinion. Founded in 1951, it is the oldest group of its kind, counting many senior Conservative Party MPs and peers among its members. It represents a forum for political debate with i ...

, who had joined UKIP in 2002, and became its chairman in early 2006. He also called for the party to broaden its policies, and wanted to focus on democracy and freedom from government interference. If elected, he wanted to work alongside Farage, who he hoped would remain the party's leader in the European Parliament. *

David Noakes David Noakes (born March 1953) is a British computer consultant, businessman and politician, who founded Immuno Biotech Ltd. to promote the unproven therapy GcMAF and came last in the 2006 UKIP leadership election. He pleaded guilty to "money la ...

, a computer consultant, called for the party to strengthen its focus on anti-EU campaigning. He stressed his belief that the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

was equivalent to a

police state A police state describes a state where its government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. There is typically little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the ...

. He called for co-operation with

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

s to organise an anti-EU general strike and for creating a permanent protest outside the

British Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...

with a van broadcasting the party's message.

Result

Farage was elected, with 44% of the votes cast.

References

{{UKIP 2006 elections in the United Kingdom 2006 UK Independence Party leadership election