The Alliance EPP: European People's Party UK, also known as UK EPP and the 4 Freedoms Party, is a

pro-European Union Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Politi ...

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the Right-wing politics, right of the Left–right politics, political spectrum, but are closer to the Centrism, centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure a ...

political party in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It first contested an election at the 2014 European Parliament elections.

Political stance

The party leader is Dirk Hazell, who is a former Conservative

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

, who has also been a candidate for the Liberal Democrats. In its initial campaign before the 2014 European Parliament elections, the party was critical of 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 ...

's departure from the European People's Party group in 2009 and opposed calls for the United Kingdom to leave 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 des ...

. It positioned itself as a conservative, pro-European alternative to the Conservative Party and 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 ...

, which it condemned as "Britain's hard right". The party called for EU reform and a greater focus on jobs and training. It expressed support for

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

Four Freedoms The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Monday, January 6, 1941. In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union address), he proposed four fundamental freed ...

, in addition to the EU's

. The UK EPP claimed an association with the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

family but is not actually a member.

European Parliament elections

In 2014, the party fielded candidates for the European election in the London constituency only. It polled 28,014 votes across the city and failed to win any seats. The party had little public activity following the 2014 European Parliament election. ''Alliance EPP'' did not contest the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peopl ...

. Its political space became occupied predominantly by Change UK, formed in early 2019 by former Labour and Conservative members, which stood candidates in all constituencies except Northern Ireland. Change UK gathered 571,846 votes (3.3%) but did not win any seats.

Other Conservative EPP MEPs in 2014-2019

Without any link to the ''Alliance EPP'' party, two British MEPs formerly elected with the Conservative Party,

Richard Ashworth Richard James Ashworth (born 17 September 1947 in Folkestone) is a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England for Change UK. He formerly sat in the European Parliament for the Conservative Party, and was that Party ...

and

Julie Girling Julie McCulloch Girling (born 21 December 1956) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England between 2009 and 2019, and leader of the Renew Party from 2019 to 2020. Formerly a Conservat ...

, joined the European People's Party group on 28 February 2018. Ashworth later joined Change UK and was a candidate for it at the

, at which he failed to be re-elected. Girling did not stand for re-election in the 2019 European Parliament election, declaring support for the Liberal Democrats, and later became the leader of the

Renew Party The Renew Party was a minor centrist political party in the United Kingdom. It was set up in 2017 to provide an alternative for moderate voters in the wake of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. The party described its ...

. Alliance EPP's founder, Dirk Hazell, has been critical of Girling and Ashworth on Twitter.
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References

External links

* {{British political parties 2012 establishments in the United Kingdom Conservative parties in the United Kingdom Conservative Party (UK) breakaway groups Political parties established in 2012 Politics of London Pro-European political parties in the United Kingdom

Political stance

European Parliament elections

Other Conservative EPP MEPs in 2014-2019

See also

References

External links