Independent Union is a

minor Minor may refer to: * Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities. ** A person who has not reached the age of majority * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Music theory *Minor chord ** Barb ...

political party in the United Kingdom The Electoral Commission's Register of Political Parties lists the details of political parties registered to fight elections in the United Kingdom, including their registered name. Under current electoral law, including the Registration of ...

. It was founded in February 2019 by six independent councillors on Hartlepool Borough Council to contest in the 2019 United Kingdom local elections, the party gaining a councillor and retaining another out of a total of five fielded candidates.

Hartlepool Borough Council

In May 2019, following multiple defections from

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

to Socialist Labour at Hartlepool Borough Council, Independent Union forged a coalition with the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

and the

Veterans and People's Party The Veterans and People's Party (VPP) is a minor political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded in mid-May 2017 by seven British military veterans to contest the 2017 United Kingdom general election. In the 2019 United Kingdom local e ...

, forming the largest grouping with 11 councillors, 6 shy of control. At the Annual General Meeting of the council, leader of the coalition, Cllr Shane Moore, was elected the Leader of the Council, with his Deputy, Cllr Mike Young being voted deputy leader. In September 2019, all IU councillors, as well as the one

councillor, who made up the coalition at Hartlepool Borough Council defected to the Brexit Party, renaming their already existing coalition with the three Conservative councillors to the "Brexit and Conservative Coalition". Despite this, the IU was still registered with the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

with Shane Moore listed as its current leader. The party leader has been Shane Moore since 2019. In early 2020, several of the councillors concerned returned to their parties, including the Independent Union and

European Election 2019

In May 2019, it was announced that IU leader, Cllr John Tennant, was standing as a

Brexit Party Reform UK is a Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit, and was bri ...

candidate in 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 ...

for

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

. Upon the announcement, Tennant was criticised for comments he made on social media, praising the

UKIP 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 pa ...

MEP

Godfrey Bloom Godfrey William Bloom TD (born 22 November 1949) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2004 to 2014. He was elected for the UK Independence Party in the European elect ...

on the day he was ejected from the European parliament for addressing German colleague,

Martin Schulz Martin Schulz (born 20 December 1955) is a German politician who served as Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2017 to 2018, and was a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) from 2017 to 2021. Previously he was President of the European Parliame ...

, the then leader of the

German Social Democratic Party The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

, with a Nazi slogan in 2010, and then another involving a joke he made regarding sex acts with a young woman in 2011. Tennant, the former UKIP group leader for the council, is said to have had a close relationship with

Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage (; born 3 April 1964) is a British broadcaster and former politician who was List of UK Independence Party leaders, Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 and Brexit Party#Leaders, Lea ...

whilst he was a

councillor, organising his public events in the North East, according to a former UKIP advisor. According to Hartleborough Borough Council's ''Register of Members' Disclosable Pecuniary Interests'', in May 2018 Tennant declared his profession as "office manager" to UKIP MEP

Jonathan Arnott Jonathan William Arnott (born 12 January 1981) is a British politician and former schoolteacher. After the 2014 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, 2014 European Parliament election, he served as a Member of the European Parliam ...

References

{{reflist 2019 establishments in the United Kingdom Eurosceptic parties in the United Kingdom Political parties established in 2019 Independent Union (political party) Locally based political parties in England