HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic,
right-wing populist Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establi ...
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 ...
. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest party representing the UK in the European Parliament. The party is currently led by Neil Hamilton. UKIP originated as the
Anti-Federalist League The Anti-Federalist League was a small cross-party organisation in the United Kingdom, formed in 1991 to campaign against the Maastricht Treaty. It is mainly remembered now as the forerunner of the UK Independence Party. The main founder of the ...
, a single-issue Eurosceptic party established in London by
Alan Sked Alan Sked (born 22 August 1947) is a Scottish eurosceptic academic notable for having founded the Anti-Federalist League (in order to oppose the Maastricht Treaty) and its successor the UK Independence Party (UKIP). He is Professor Emeritus of ...
in 1991. It was renamed UKIP in 1993, but its growth remained slow. It was largely eclipsed by the Eurosceptic
Referendum Party The Referendum Party was a Eurosceptic, single-issue party, single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 1997. The party's sole objective was for a referendum to be held on the nature of the UK's membership of ...
until the latter's 1997 dissolution. In 1997, Sked was ousted by a faction led by
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 20 ...
, who became the party's preeminent figure. In 2006, Farage officially became leader and, under his direction, the party adopted a wider policy platform and capitalised on concerns about rising immigration, in particular among the White British working class. This resulted in significant breakthroughs at the 2013 local elections, 2014 European Parliamentary elections, and 2015 general election. After the UK voted to leave the EU in the
2016 Brexit Referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...
, Farage stepped down as UKIP leader, later joining the
Brexit Party Reform UK is a 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 briefly a significant p ...
. UKIP subsequently saw its vote share and membership heavily decline, losing almost all of its elected representatives amid much internal instability and a drift toward a far-right, anti-Islam message. Ideologically positioned on the right-wing of British politics, UKIP is characterised by
political scientists This is a list of notable political scientists. See the list of political theorists for those who study political theory. See also political science. A * Robert Abelson - Yale University psychologist and political scientist with special int ...
as a right-wing populist party. UKIP's primary emphasis has been on Euroscepticism, calling for the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union (EU). It promotes a
British unionist Unionism in the United Kingdom, also referred to as British unionism, is a political ideology favouring the continued unity of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as one sovereign state, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nort ...
and British nationalist agenda, encouraging a unitary British identity in opposition to growing Welsh and Scottish nationalisms. Political scientists have argued that in doing so, it conflates
Britishness British national identity is a term referring to the sense of national identity, as embodied in the shared and characteristic culture, languages and traditions, of the British people. It comprises the claimed qualities that bind and distingui ...
with
Englishness A national identity of the English as the people or ethnic group dominant in England dates to the Anglo-Saxon period. The establishing of a single English ethnic identity dates to at least AD 731, as exemplified in Bede's ''Ecclesiastical Histor ...
and appeals to
English nationalist English nationalism is a nationalism that asserts that the English are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of English people. In a general sense, it comprises political and social movements and sentiment inspired by a love for English ...
sentiment. UKIP has also placed emphasis on lowering immigration, rejecting multiculturalism, and opposing what it calls the "
Islamification Islamization, Islamicization, or Islamification ( ar, أسلمة, translit=aslamāh), refers to the process through which a society shifts towards the religion of Islam and becomes largely Muslim. Societal Islamization has historically occurre ...
" of Britain. Influenced by Thatcherism and classical liberalism, it describes itself as economically libertarian and promotes
liberal economic Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism, ...
policies. On social issues such as LGBT rights, education policy, and criminal justice it is traditionalist. Having an ideological heritage stemming from the right-wing of the Conservative Party, it distinguishes itself from the mainstream political establishment through heavy use of populist rhetoric, for example, through Farage's description of its supporters as the "People's Army". Governed by its leader and National Executive Committee, UKIP is divided into twelve regional groups. While gaining electoral support from various sectors of British society,
psephologists Psephology (; from Greek el, ψῆφος, psephos, pebble, label=none) or political analysis is a branch of political science, the "quantitative analysis of elections and balloting". As such, psephology attempts to explain elections using the ...
established that at its height, UKIP's primary voting base consisted of older, working-class white men living in England. UKIP has faced a critical reception from mainstream political parties, much of the media, and
anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
groups. Its discourse on immigration and cultural identity generated accusations of racism and xenophobia, both of which it denies.


History


Foundation and early years: 1991–2004

UKIP began as the
Anti-Federalist League The Anti-Federalist League was a small cross-party organisation in the United Kingdom, formed in 1991 to campaign against the Maastricht Treaty. It is mainly remembered now as the forerunner of the UK Independence Party. The main founder of the ...
, a Eurosceptic political party established in 1991 by the historian
Alan Sked Alan Sked (born 22 August 1947) is a Scottish eurosceptic academic notable for having founded the Anti-Federalist League (in order to oppose the Maastricht Treaty) and its successor the UK Independence Party (UKIP). He is Professor Emeritus of ...
. The League opposed the recently signed
Maastricht Treaty The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced "a new stage in the p ...
and sought to sway the governing Conservative Party towards removing the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU). A former
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
candidate, member of the Bruges Group, and professor at the London School of Economics (LSE), Sked had converted to Euroscepticism while teaching the LSE's European Studies programme. Under the Anti-Federalist League's banner, Sked was a candidate for Member of Parliament (MP) for
Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...
at the 1992 general election, gaining 0.2% of the vote. At a League meeting held in the LSE on 3 September 1993, the group was renamed the UK Independence Party, deliberately avoiding the term "British" so as to avoid confusion with the far-right
British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...
(BNP). UKIP contested the
1994 European Parliament election The 1994 European Parliamentary election was a Elections in the European Union, European election held across the 12 European Union European Union member state, member states in June 1994. This election saw the merge of the European People's Part ...
with little financing and much infighting, securing itself as the fifth-largest party in that election with 1% of the vote. During this period, UKIP was viewed as a typical
single-issue party Single-issue politics involves political campaigning or political support based on one essential policy area or idea. Political expression One weakness of such an approach is that effective political parties are usually coalitions of factio ...
by commentators, some of whom drew comparisons with the French Poujadist movement. Following the election, UKIP lost much support to the
Referendum Party The Referendum Party was a Eurosceptic, single-issue party, single-issue political party that was active in the United Kingdom from 1994 to 1997. The party's sole objective was for a referendum to be held on the nature of the UK's membership of ...
; founded by the multi-millionaire
James Goldsmith Sir James Michael Goldsmith (26 February 1933 – 18 July 1997) was a French-British financier, tycoon''Billionaire: The Life and Times of Sir James Goldsmith'' by Ivan Fallon and politician who was a member of the Goldsmith family. His cont ...
in 1994, it shared UKIP's Eurosceptic approach but was far better funded. In the 1997 general election, UKIP fielded 194 candidates and secured 0.3% of the national vote; only one of its candidates,
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 20 ...
in Salisbury, secured over 5% of the vote and had his deposit returned. UKIP was beaten by the Referendum Party in 163 of the 165 seats in which they stood against each other. The Referendum Party disbanded following Goldsmith's death later that year and many of its candidates joined UKIP. After the election, Sked was pressured into resigning by a party faction led by Farage, David Lott and Michael Holmes, who deemed him too intellectual and dictatorial. Sked left the party, alleging that it had been infiltrated by
racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race over another. It may also mean prejudice, d ...
and far-right elements, including BNP spies. This connection was emphasised in the press, particularly when Farage was photographed meeting with BNP activists. Holmes took over as party leader, and in the 1999 European Parliament elections—the first British election for the European Parliament to use proportional representation—UKIP received 6.5% of the vote and three seats, in South East England (Farage),
South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...
(Holmes), and the East of England (
Jeffrey Titford Jeffrey William Titford (born 24 October 1933) is a British politician who served as leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2000 until 2002. He served again as interim leader in September to November 2010, following the resignation of ...
). An internal power struggle ensued between Holmes and the party's National Executive Committee (NEC), which was critical of Holmes after he called for the European Parliament to have greater powers over the European Commission. Led by Farage, the NEC removed Holmes from power, and Titford was elected leader. In the 2001 general election, UKIP secured 1.5% of the vote, and six of its 428 candidates retained their deposits. It had lost much of its support to the Conservatives, whose leader William Hague had adopted increasingly Eurosceptic rhetoric during his campaign. In 2002, the former Conservative MP
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 ...
was elected UKIP leader, bringing with him the experience of mainstream politics that the party had lacked. Knapman hired the political campaign consultant
Dick Morris Richard Samuel Morris (born November 28, 1948) is an American political author and commentator who previously worked as a pollster, political campaign consultant, and general political consultant. A friend and advisor to Bill Clinton during hi ...
to advise UKIP. The party adopted the slogan "say no" and launched a national billboard campaign. In 2004, UKIP reorganised itself nationally as a private company limited by guarantee.


Growing visibility: 2004–2014

UKIP's support increased during the 2004 European Parliament elections, when it placed third, securing 2.6 million votes (16.1%) and winning twelve seats. This had been made possible through increased funding from major donors and the celebrity endorsement of chat show host
Robert Kilroy-Silk Robert Michael Kilroy-Silk (born Robert Michael Silk; 19 May 1942) is an English former politician and broadcaster. After a decade as a university lecturer, he served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 1986. He left the H ...
, who stood as a candidate in the East Midlands. Kilroy-Silk then criticised Knapman's leadership, arguing that UKIP should stand against Conservative candidates, regardless of whether they were Eurosceptic or not. This position was rejected by many party members, who were uneasy regarding Kilroy-Silk. After Farage and Lott backed Knapman, Kilroy-Silk left the party in January 2005. Two weeks later, he founded his own rival,
Veritas Veritas is the name given to the Roman virtue of Honesty, truthfulness, which was considered one of the main virtues any good Roman should possess. The Greek goddess of truth is Aletheia (Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: ). The German phi ...
, taking a number of UKIP members—including both of its London Assembly members—with him. After Kilroy-Silk's defection, UKIP's membership declined by a third and donations dropped by over a half. UKIP continued to be widely seen as a single-issue party and in the 2005 general election—when it fielded 496 candidates—it secured only 2.2% of the vote, and 40 candidates had their deposits returned. Electoral support for the BNP grew during this period, with academics and political commentators suggesting that the parties were largely competing for the same voter base, a section of about 20% of the UK population. Given that the BNP had outperformed UKIP in most of the seats that they both contested, many UKIP members, including several figures on the NEC, favoured an electoral pact with them, a proposal that Farage strongly condemned. In 2006, Farage was elected leader. To attract support, he cultivated an image of himself as a "man of the people", openly smoking and drinking, showing disdain for the established parties, and speaking in an open manner that appeared unscripted. He sought to broaden UKIP's image from that of a single-issue party by introducing an array of socially conservative policies, including reducing immigration, tax cuts, restoring grammar schools, and
climate change denial Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or the ...
. In doing so he was attempting to attract disenfranchised former Conservatives who had left the party after its leader, David Cameron, had moved in a
socially liberal Cultural liberalism is a social philosophy which expresses the social dimension of liberalism and advocates the freedom of individuals to choose whether to conform to cultural norms. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, it is often expressed a ...
direction. According to Farage, Cameron was "a socialist" whose priorities were "gay marriage, foreign aid, and wind farms". Cameron was highly critical of UKIP, referring to them as "fruitcakes, loonies, and closet racists". The Conservatives' largest donor,
Stuart Wheeler John Stuart Wheeler (30 January 193523 July 2020) was a British financier, gambler and political activist. He made his fortune as the founder of the spread betting firm IG Index in 1974, but was best known for his political activism, being a m ...
, donated £100,000 to UKIP after criticising Cameron's stance towards the
Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by the EU member sta ...
and the EU. After trust in the mainstream parties was damaged by the parliamentary expenses scandal, UKIP received an immediate surge in support. This helped it in the
2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making th ...
, in which it secured 2.5 million votes (16.5%), resulting in 13 MEPs, becoming the second largest party in the European Parliament after the Conservatives. During the election, UKIP outperformed the BNP, whose electoral support base collapsed shortly after. In September 2009, Farage resigned as leader. The subsequent
leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...
was won by Lord Malcolm Pearson, who emphasised UKIP's opposition to high immigration rates and Islamism in Britain, calling for a ban on the
burqa A burqa or a burka, or , and ur, , it is also transliterated as burkha, bourkha, burqua or burqu' or borgha' and is pronounced natively . It is generally pronounced in the local variety of Arabic or variety of Persian, which varies. Examp ...
being worn in public. Pearson was unpopular with the UKIP grassroots, who viewed him as an establishment figure too favourable to the Conservatives. In the 2010 general election, UKIP fielded 558 candidates and secured 3.1% of the vote (919,471 votes), but won no seats. Pearson stood down as leader in August, and Farage was re-elected in the
leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...
with more than 60% of the vote. Farage placed new emphasis on developing areas of local support through growth in local councils. Observing that the party had done well in areas dominated by white
blue-collar worker A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involving manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and powe ...
s with no educational attainment, and that conversely it had done poorly in areas with high numbers of graduates and ethnic minorities, UKIP's campaign refocused directly at the former target vote. UKIP support would be bolstered by dissatisfaction with the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government and the perception that its
austerity Austerity is a set of political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three primary types of austerity measures: higher taxes to fund spend ...
policies benefited the socio-economic elite while imposing hardship on most Britons. During this year, UKIP had witnessed far greater press coverage and growing support, with opinion polls placing it at around 10% support in late 2012. UKIP put up a record number of candidates for the 2013 local elections, achieving its strongest local government result, polling an average of 23% in the wards where it stood, and increasing its number of elected councillors from 4 to 147. This was the best result for a party outside the big three in British politics since the Second World War, with UKIP being described as "the most popular political insurgency" in Britain since the
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...
during the 1980s.


Entering mainstream politics: 2014–2016

In March 2014, Ofcom awarded UKIP "major party status". In the 2014 local elections, UKIP won 163 seats, an increase of 128, but did not take control of any council. In the 2014 European Parliament elections, UKIP received the greatest number of votes (27.5%) of any British party, producing 24 MEPs. The party won seats in every region of Britain, including its first in Scotland. It made strong gains in traditionally Labour voting areas within Wales and the North of England; it for instance came either first or second in all 72 council areas of the latter. The victory established Farage and UKIP as "truly household names". It was the first time since 1906 that a party other than Labour or the Conservatives had won the most votes in a UK-wide election. UKIP gained its first MP when Conservative defector Douglas Carswell won the seat of Clacton during an October 2014 by-election."UKIP gains first elected MP with Clacton win"
, BBC News. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
In November fellow Conservative defector
Mark Reckless Mark John Reckless (born 6 December 1970) is a British politician who served as a Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales East from 2016 until 2021, having previously served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochester and Strood from 2010 to ...
became UKIP's second MP in a
Rochester and Strood by-election A by-election was held on 20 November 2014 for the UK parliamentary constituency of Rochester and Strood in Kent, England. The sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Mark Reckless called it on joining the UK Independence Party (UKIP), from the Cons ...
."Rochester: Farage looks to more UKIP gains after success"
, BBC News. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
In the 2015 general election, UKIP secured over 3.8 million votes (12.6% of the total), replacing the Liberal Democrats as the third most popular party, but only secured one seat, with Carswell retaining his seat and Reckless losing his. In the run-up to the election, Farage stated that he would resign as party leader if he did not win South Thanet. On failing to do so, he resigned, although was reinstated three days later when the NEC rejected his resignation. A period of 'civil war' broke out among senior membership between those who favoured Farage's leadership and those seeking a change. In the
2015 Oldham West and Royton by-election The Oldham West and Royton by-election was a UK parliamentary by-election held on 3 December 2015 in the constituency of Oldham West and Royton in Greater Manchester. This was the first by-election of the 56th UK Parliament. The by-elect ...
the party attacked
Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
as a security risk, but only gained a small increase in support at the expense of the Conservative Party. In the
2016 National Assembly for Wales election Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film d ...
, UKIP nearly tripled their share of votes (from 4.7 per cent to 12.5 per cent) and won seven seats. UKIP had also won control of its first UK council, in Thanet, in May 2015; it took overall control from Labour and increased its seats on the council from two to 33. To counter the loss of further votes to UKIP, the governing Conservatives, led by David Cameron, promised a referendum on the UK's continued membership of the EU. Rather than taking part in the official Vote Leave campaign, to which various Eurosceptic Conservative and Labour politicians were linked, UKIP affiliated itself with the
Leave.EU Leave.EU was a political campaign group that was first established to support the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union in the June 2016 referendum. Founded in July 2015 as The Know, the campaign was relaunched in September of th ...
campaign group. Farage gained regular press coverage during the campaign, in which Leave.EU emphasised what it characterised as the negative impact of immigration on local communities and public services. The June 2016 referendum produced a 51.89% majority in favour of leaving the EU: the accomplishment of UKIP's ''raison d'être'' raised questions about the party's future. The loss of its MEPs would result in the loss of its primary institutional representation and a key source of its funding.


Decline: 2016–present


Downward turn (2016–2018)

After the referendum, Farage resigned as UKIP leader.
Diane James Diane Martine James (born 20 November 1959) is a British politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 2014 to 2019. She was briefly leader-elect of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from September 2 ...
was elected as his successor, but resigned after 18 days. Farage's former deputy, Paul Nuttall, was elected leader that month. In March 2017, the party's only MP, Carswell, left the party to sit as an independent. The next month, Reckless also left UKIP. In the 2017 local elections, UKIP lost all 145 seats it was defending, but gained one on
Lancashire County Council Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. It consists of 84 councillors. Since the 2017 election, the council has been under Conservative control. Prior to the 2009 La ...
. These results led several prominent former UKIP members to call for the party to be disbanded. In the following 2017 general election, UKIP received fewer than 600,000 votes and won no seats. The following day, Nuttall resigned and Steve Crowther took over as interim party leader. In July 2017, it lost its majority on Thanet council when Councillor Beverly Martin defected to the Conservatives; in September all three UKIP councillors on
Plymouth City Council Plymouth City Council is the unitary authority for Plymouth, Devon. It has traditionally been controlled by Labour or the Conservatives. The council is currently in a state of no overall control, with the Conservatives governing as a minority a ...
defected to the Conservatives, as did Alexandra Phillips, who had been UKIP's Head of Media for three years. In 2017, Henry Bolton, a former soldier, was
elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a populatio ...
leader. In January 2018, UKIP MEP
Jonathan Arnott Jonathan William Arnott (born 12 January 1981) is a British politician and former schoolteacher. After the 2014 European Parliament election, he served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North East England region. Originally s ...
resigned from the party. In December 2017, former UKIP
Suffolk County Council Suffolk County Council is the administrative authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 75 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions. It is a member of the East of England Local Government Association. History Est ...
member and parliamentary candidate from the general election in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, Stephen Searle, murdered his wife Anne Searle at their home in Stowmarket. In January 2018, UKIP's NEC delivered a vote of no confidence in Bolton; only Bolton voted against the motion. He nevertheless refused to resign. In protest,
Margot Parker Margaret Lucille Jeanne Parker (born 24 July 1943) is an English politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East Midlands region between 2014 and 2019. She was born in Grantham and educated at Kesteven and Granth ...
resigned as deputy leader, as did the party's spokesmen for government, education, immigration, and trade and industry. A few days later, all seventeen UKIP members of
Thurrock Council Thurrock Borough Council, usually known as simply Thurrock Council, is the local authority for the borough of Thurrock in Essex, England. Since 1997, Thurrock has been a unitary authority, combining the functions of a non-metropolitan county ...
left the party and formed Thurrock Independents. In February, UKIP members passed a vote of no confidence in Bolton, removing him as leader. He was replaced by Gerard Batten as interim leader until a new leadership election could be held. When the election occurred in April, Batten stood unopposed and was elected.


Association with the far right (2018–2019)

In the 2018 local elections UKIP lost 124 of the 126 seats it was defending, and gained a single seat in Derby for a net loss of 123. MEP
James Carver James Bruce Carver (born 15 August 1969) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands region between 2014 and 2019. He was elected in 2014 for the UK Independence Party, second on the l ...
left UKIP to sit as an independent on 28 May 2018, becoming the sixth UKIP MEP to leave since 2014. Under the leadership of Henry Bolton, party membership was understood to have fallen to around 18,000 by January 2018. During Batten's interim leadership term, the party avoided insolvency after a financial appeal to members. As the new permanent leader, Batten focused the party more on opposing Islam, which he described as a "death cult", was criticised as an "explicitly far-right party" after they invited Paul Joseph Watson as a spokesman, sought closer relations with the far-right activist Tommy Robinson and his followers, and made Muslim-only prisons party policy (which was criticised as "the first step to Muslim concentration camps"). The party saw its membership rise by 15% in July 2018, following the publication of the
Chequers Agreement The Chequers plan, officially known as ''The future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union (Cm 9593)'', was a UK Government white paper concerning Brexit, published on 12July 2018 by the prime minister, Theresa May. The ...
and allowing three prominent far-right activists to join the party. Previous leader
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 20 ...
stated he was "really upset" that Robinson could be allowed into the party and that he believed Gerard Batten was marginalising the party. Batten's appointment of Robinson as an advisor was followed by a wave of high-profile resignations from the party. Farage announced his decision to resign in December 2018, calling Batten "obsessed" with Islam and saying that "UKIP wasn't founded to be a party based on fighting a religious crusade". Former Deputy Chair Suzanne Evans had left earlier that week after Batten survived a vote of confidence from the party NEC. The former leader of the party in the Welsh Assembly, Caroline Jones, and the MEP William Dartmouth had also cited the party's trajectory to the right as reasons for leaving the party. Another former leader, Paul Nuttall, also left for the same reason. By December 2018, a majority of the party's MEPs had left. Others leaving included Peter Whittle, the party's top vote-winner on the London Assembly. On 9 December 2018, before an important vote on
Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
legislation, UKIP led a "Brexit Betrayal" rally in central London fronted by Robinson, alongside prominent far-right groups. By April 2019, of 24 UKIP MEPs elected in the 2014 European Election, only 4 remained members of UKIP. Ten of these MEPs would later move to Nigel's Farage's new party,
The Brexit Party Reform UK is a 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 briefly a significant p ...
, whilst O'Flynn defected to the SDP. Most others continued to sit as Independent MEPs. By April 2019, the British government had agreed an extension to EU membership with the EU until 31 October 2019, which would mean the UK would take part in the 2019 European Parliament elections. Candidates selected by UKIP to run in the election included right-wing YouTube personalities,
Carl Benjamin Carl Benjamin (born 1979), also known by his online pseudonym Sargon of Akkad, is a British far-right anti-feminist YouTuber and political commentator. A former member of the Eurosceptic right-wing UK Independence Party (UKIP), he was one of ...
and
Mark Meechan Mark Meechan () (born 19 October 1987) is a Scottish YouTuber and former UK Independence Party candidate for the European Parliament. He uses the online name Count Dankula. Meechan received press coverage when he posted a video showing him te ...
. Benjamin had caused controversy by making "inappropriate" comments in 2016 about the rape threats to a female Labour MP
Jess Phillips Jessica Rose Phillips (; born 9 October 1981) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguardi ...
, with the UKIP Swindon Branch chair calling for him to be deselected. Videos made by Benjamin in which he used racist terms also caused controversy. In May, the
2019 United Kingdom local elections Local elections in parts of the United Kingdom were held on Thursday 2 May 2019, with 248 English local councils, six directly elected mayors in England, and all 11 local councils in Northern Ireland being contested. A total of 8,886 council ...
saw UKIP lose around 80% of the seats it was defending. The party was criticised for failing "to capitalise on the collapse of the Conservatives" by commentators. In the European elections later that month, UKIP received 3.3% of the vote and lost all its remaining seats. On 2 June 2019, Batten resigned his post as party leader as he had promised if he lost his MEP position. In the 2019 UKIP leadership election, Richard Braine was elected UKIP leader and attempted to appoint Batten as deputy leader. Braine's attempt to appoint Batten as the party's deputy leader was blocked by its National Executive Committee (NEC). Braine was criticised in the press for comments he has made which were considered racist and offensive, including one incident in which he claimed he "often confused" London mayor
Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's soft ...
with
Mohammad Sidique Khan Mohammad Sidique Khan (Urdu: ; October 20, 1974 – July 7, 2005) was a Pakistani-British terrorist and the oldest of the four Islamist suicide bombers and believed to be the leader responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings, in which bom ...
, one of the 7/7 terror attackers. Braine later further came underfire when he announced he planned to boycott the September 2019 UKIP Party conference in Newport, after less than 450 tickets were sold for the conference. The Chairman of UKIP, Kirstan Herriot, stated to members that Braine had attempted to cancel the conference due to the low turnout and was highly critical of this attempted action.


Internal instability (2019–present)

In October 2019, UKIP underwent a leadership crisis in the run-up to its NEC elections after it suspended Braine's membership, and by extension, his eligibility to be party leader, over allegations of data theft from party databases. Three other members associated with Braine – Jeff Armstrong, the party's general secretary appointed by Braine; NEC candidate Mark Dent; and Tony Sharp – were also suspended. In response, Braine accused the NEC of carrying out a purge of members. All four members were reported to the
National Fraud Intelligence Bureau The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau is a police unit in the United Kingdom responsible for gathering and analysing intelligence relating to fraud and financially motivated cyber crime. The NFIB was created as part of the recommendations of the ...
. On 30 October 2019, Braine resigned as leader of the party. He cited "internal conflict" and an inability to "prevent a purge of good members from the party", referring to the NEC's decision to add "Integrity", an anti-Islam faction within UKIP supporting Tommy Robinson, Batten and Braine, to the party's proscribed list of organisations. On 7 November 2019, Welsh Assembly Member and UKIP group leader Gareth Bennett resigned from UKIP and chose to sit as an independent in the Welsh Assembly. He stated that he wanted to support
Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as Fo ...
's Brexit deal. As a result, the sole remaining UKIP member of the Welsh Assembly was Neil Hamilton. On 16 November 2019, National Executive Committee member
Patricia Mountain Patricia Ann Mountain is a British politician who served as the Interim Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2019 to 2020. Mountain also served as the Deputy Leader of UKIP from July to September 2020. Career Mountain was one of ten ...
was appointed interim leader in preparation for the December general election and the upcoming UKIP leadership election.UKIP announces new interim leader
Retrieved 20 November 2019.
Only 44 UKIP candidates stood in the December 2019 general election, targeting constituencies that voted to leave the European Union in which the Brexit Party withdrew their candidates for the Conservatives or where the Conservative candidate was in favour of remaining in the EU. On 2 December 2019, Mountain appeared on Sky News for an interview with journalist
Adam Boulton Thomas Adam Babington Boulton (born 15 February 1959) is a British journalist and broadcaster who is regular panelist on TalkTV. He was formerly editor-at-large of Sky News, and presenter of '' All Out Politics'' and ''Week In Review''. He is a ...
as a part of the launch of the election manifesto for UKIP; it lasted for eight minutes and the interview was described by the ''
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after b ...
'' as a "car crash", and there were reports that she was mistaken for the titular character of ''
Catherine Tate's Nan ''Catherine Tate's Nan'' (simply referred to as ''Nan'' on-screen) is a BBC One spin-off series of specials which follows the character of Joanie Taylor (Catherine Tate) from the original sketch comedy series ''The Catherine Tate Show''. When th ...
''. Mountain was unable to name a single seat her party was contending and "accidentally called her party racist". UKIP failed to win any seats it contested in the election and nationwide the party received only 22,817 votes (0.1% of the vote share). This result was the lowest the party had achieved in a general election in the party's history. The party also failed to retain any deposits, only received more than 1,000 votes in two seats, and, in another two seats, finished behind the satirical Official Monster Raving Loony Party. In January 2020,
David Kurten David Michael Kurten (born 22 March 1971) is a British politician who has served as leader of the Heritage Party since September 2020. He previously was a member of the London Assembly (AM) for Londonwide from 2016 to 2021. Elected as a UK Ind ...
, UKIP's last remaining London Assembly Member, left UKIP to stand as an
independent candidate An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...
in the
2020 London Assembly election The 2021 London Assembly election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the members of the London Assembly, alongside the 2021 London mayoral election. The mayoral and Assembly elections were originally to be held on 7 May 2020, but on 13 March 2020 i ...
and the
2020 London mayoral election The 2021 London mayoral election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the mayor of London. It was held simultaneously with elections for the London Assembly, other local elections across England and Wales, and devolved elections in Scotland and ...
. Kurten described the politics of both UKIP and the Brexit Party as needing "rebranding" once Britain left the EU on 31 January. Kurten's departure ended UKIP's presence on the London Assembly. In March 2020, according to a tweet by the former leader, Gerard Batten, the party was reported to be "close to insolvency". On 25 June 2020, Freddy Vachha was elected unopposed as leader. He stated that the party "went astray quite a few years ago" and that under his leadership it would "return to our libertarian freedom-loving principles". On 12 September 2020, it was reported that Vachha had been suspended from the party following a formal complaint of bullying and harassment. Later that day, UKIP Wales leader Neil Hamilton was made interim Leader. Vachha argued a short time later that he was still leader, and that his suspension was unconstitutional, as he claimed to have appointed Marietta King as chairman in place of Ben Walker a few days earlier. Vachha decided to take legal action, however in December a judge refused his request to fast-track the case. Vachha then dropped his legal case and was ordered to pay the party's legal costs. In the
2021 Senedd election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length&nb ...
, UKIP performed poorly and suffered a "complete collapse" of voter support, with the Conservative Party gaining a number of voters who had in previous elections voted UKIP. The party finished seventh with 1.56% of regional list votes. Neil Hamilton, Interim UKIP leader and UKIP's sole MS in the Welsh Senedd lost his seat, ending any representation UKIP had outside of
local government in England Local government in England broadly consists of three layers: regional authorities, local authorities and parish councils. Legislation concerning English local government is passed by Parliament, as England does not have a devolved parliament. ...
. In the
Scottish Parliament election Scotland has elections to several bodies: the Scottish Parliament, the United Kingdom Parliament, local councils and community councils. Before the United Kingdom left the European Union, Scotland elected members to the European Parliament. Sco ...
, the party received just 3,848 (0.14%) list votes across the whole country despite standing in every region in Scotland. In the 2021 local elections, UKIP lost all the seats they were defending from the previous elections in those council areas. Furthermore, in the London mayoral election, the UKIP candidate, Peter Gammons, achieved 0.6% of the total vote, finishing 13th. The party finished ninth in the London Assembly election, down from fourth in 2016. After a period as acting leader, Hamilton was elected as leader in October 2021, receiving 498 votes of 631 cast (78.9%) against challenger John Poynton.


Ideology and policies


Right-wing populism

UKIP is situated on the right wing of the left–right political spectrum. More specifically, academic political scientists and commentators have described UKIP as a
right-wing populist Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establi ...
party, and as part of Europe's wider radical right. The term '' populism'' refers to political groups which ideologically contrast "the people" against an elite or group of "dangerous others" whom the populists claim threaten the sovereignty of "the people", and during its establishment in 1993, UKIP's founders explicitly described it as a populist party. At the time, its "ideological heritage" lay within the right-wing of the Conservative Party, and UKIP was influenced by the " Tory populism" of Conservative politicians Margaret Thatcher and Enoch Powell. The political scientists Amir Abedi and Thomas Carl Lundberg characterised UKIP as an "Anti-Political Establishment" party. The party's rhetoric presents the idea that there is a fundamental divide between the British population and the elite who govern the country. UKIP claims to stand up for ordinary people against this political elite. UKIP politician
Bill Etheridge William Milroy Etheridge (born 18 March 1970) is an English politician who was previously a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands region. He was elected in 2014 as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate, but left the ...
for instance claimed that his party represented "a democratic revolution... the people of Britain rising up and fighting to wrestle power from the elite". Contributing to this anti-establishment message, Farage describes the party's supporters as "the People's Army", and he regularly held photo-opportunities and journalistic interviews in a
pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...
, thus cultivating an "erudite everyman" image that contrasted with his past as a
commodities trader A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing ...
. UKIP uses recurring populist rhetoric—for instance by describing its policies as "
common sense ''Common Sense'' is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political argu ...
" and "straight talking"—in order to present itself as a straightforward alternative to the mainstream parties and their supposedly elusive and complex discourse. UKIP presents the UK's three primary parties—the Conservatives, Labour, and Liberal Democrats—as being essentially interchangeable, referring to them with the portmanteau of "LibLabCon". Farage accused all three parties of being
social-democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...
in ideology and "virtually indistinguishable from one another on nearly all the key issues". Farage has also accused the Scottish National Party of being "the voice of anti-Englishness", suggesting that elements of the
Scottish nationalist Scottish nationalism promotes the idea that the Scottish people form a cohesive nation and national identity. Scottish nationalism began to shape from 1853 with the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights, progressing into th ...
movement are "deeply racist, with a total hatred of the English".


Nationalism and British unionism

UKIP has always had the politics of national identity at its core. The party is nationalist, and its "basic claim—that the highest priority for the British polity is to assure that it is fully governed by the national state—is a nationalist one." The party describes its position as being that of
civic nationalism Civic nationalism, also known as liberal nationalism, is a form of nationalism identified by political philosophers who believe in an inclusive form of nationalism that adheres to traditional liberal values of freedom, tolerance, equality, i ...
, and in its manifesto explicitly rejects ethnic nationalism by encouraging support from Britons of all ethnicities and religions. Rejecting claims that it is racist, both Sked and later Farage described UKIP as a "non-racist, non-sectarian party". In UKIP's literature, the party has placed an emphasis on "restoring Britishness" and counteracting what it sees as a "serious existential crisis" exhibited by the "
Islamification Islamization, Islamicization, or Islamification ( ar, أسلمة, translit=aslamāh), refers to the process through which a society shifts towards the religion of Islam and becomes largely Muslim. Societal Islamization has historically occurre ...
" of Britain, the "pseudo-nationalisms" of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and the multicultural and supranational policies promoted by "the cultural left", describing its own stance as being "unashamedly unicultural". It has been suggested that this attitude compromises the party's claim that its form of
British nationalism British nationalism asserts that the British are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of Britons,Guntram H. Herb, David H. Kaplan. Nations and Nationalism: A Global Historical Overview: A Global Historical Overview. Santa Barbara, Californ ...
is civic and inclusive. UKIP considers itself to be a
British unionist Unionism in the United Kingdom, also referred to as British unionism, is a political ideology favouring the continued unity of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as one sovereign state, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nort ...
party, although its support base is centred largely in England. Farage has characterised his party's growth as "a very English rebellion", and has described UKIP as "unashamedly patriotic, proud to be who we are as a nation". The political scientist Richard Hayton argued that UKIP's British unionism reflects "Anglo-Britishness", a perspective that blurs the distinction between Britain and England. With Mycock, Hayton argued that in conflating
Englishness A national identity of the English as the people or ethnic group dominant in England dates to the Anglo-Saxon period. The establishing of a single English ethnic identity dates to at least AD 731, as exemplified in Bede's ''Ecclesiastical Histor ...
with
Britishness British national identity is a term referring to the sense of national identity, as embodied in the shared and characteristic culture, languages and traditions, of the British people. It comprises the claimed qualities that bind and distingui ...
, UKIP exhibited an "inherent Anglocentrism" that negates the distinct culture of the
Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
, Welsh, and
Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...
peoples of the United Kingdom. Hayton suggests that UKIP tap into "a vein of nostalgic cultural nationalism" within England, and it has been noted that UKIP's discourse frames the image of Englishness in a nostalgic manner, harking back to the years before the collapse of the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
. UKIP has emphasised the need to correct what it perceives as the United Kingdom's imbalance against England resulting from the "
West Lothian question The West Lothian question, also known as the English question, is a political issue in the United Kingdom. It concerns the question of whether MPs from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales who sit in the House of Commons should be able to vote ...
" and the
Barnett formula The Barnett formula is a mechanism used by the Treasury in the United Kingdom to automatically adjust the amounts of public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to reflect changes in spending levels allocated to public se ...
. The party has mobilised
English nationalist English nationalism is a nationalism that asserts that the English are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of English people. In a general sense, it comprises political and social movements and sentiment inspired by a love for English ...
sentiment brought on by English concerns following the devolution within the UK and the rise of Welsh and Scottish nationalisms. The party initially opposed federalism in the UK, criticising the establishment of the Welsh Assembly and
Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of the capital ...
. However, in September 2011 Farage and the NEC announced their support for the establishment of an English Parliament to accompany the other devolved governments. In its 2015 manifesto, it promised to make
St. George's Day Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, and cities of which he is the patron saint, including Bulgaria, England, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Cáceres, Alcoy, Aragon and Catalonia. Sa ...
and St. David's Day
bank holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or held ...
s in England and Wales, respectively. Similarly, UKIP's 2017 manifesto pledged to declare 23 June British Independence Day and observe it annually as a national holiday.


Euroscepticism, immigration, and foreign policy

UKIP embraces the ideology of hard Euroscepticism, also known as "Eurorejectionism". Opposition to the United Kingdom's continued membership of the European Union has been its "core issue" and is "central to the party's identity". UKIP characterises the EU as a fundamentally undemocratic institution and stresses the need to regain what it describes as the UK's
national sovereignty Westphalian sovereignty, or state sovereignty, is a principle in international law that each state has exclusive sovereignty over its territory. The principle underlies the modern international system of sovereign states and is enshrined in the ...
from the EU. It presents the EU as being an exemplar of non-accountability, corruption, and inefficiency, and views it as being responsible for the "flooding" of the UK with migrants, in particular from Eastern Europe. UKIP emphasises Euroscepticism to a far greater extent than any of Western Europe's other main radical right parties, and it was only post-2010 that it began seriously articulating other issues. Hayton nevertheless suggested that Euroscepticism still remains "the lens through which most of its other policy positions are framed and understood". The party opposed the
2004 enlargement of the European Union The largest expansion of the European Union (EU), in terms of territory, number of states, and population took place on 1 May 2004. The simultaneous accessions concerned the following countries (sometimes referred to as the "A10" countries): ...
into eastern Europe. UKIP advocated leaving the European Union, stopping payments to the EU, and withdrawing from EU treaties, while maintaining trading ties with other European countries. Initially, UKIP's policy was that, in the event of them winning a general election, it would remove the UK from the EU without a referendum on the issue. The party leadership later suggested a referendum, expressing the view that in the case of an exit vote, it could negotiate favourable terms for the country's withdrawal, for instance through ensuring a
free trade agreement A free-trade agreement (FTA) or treaty is an agreement according to international law to form a free-trade area between the cooperating states. There are two types of trade agreements: bilateral and multilateral. Bilateral trade agreements occu ...
between the UK and EU. UKIP eventually committed to a referendum in their 2015 manifesto. In contrast to involvement in the EU, UKIP has emphasised the UK's global connections, in particularly to member states of the Commonwealth of Nations. UKIP rejected the description that they were "Europhobes", maintaining that its stance was anti-EU, not anti-European. UKIP has placed great emphasis on the issue of immigration to the UK, and in 2013 Farage described it as "the biggest single issue facing this party". UKIP attributes British membership of the EU as the core cause of immigration to the UK, citing the Union's open-border policies as the reason why large numbers of East European migrants have moved to Britain. On their campaign billboards, UKIP have presented EU migrants as a source of crime, as well as a pressure on housing, the welfare state, and the health service. Farage has emphasised not only the economic impact of migration but also the public anxieties regarding the cultural changes brought by immigration. In its 2009 electoral manifesto, UKIP proposed a five-year ban on any migrants coming to the UK. By 2015, it had modified this to the view that the five-year ban should apply only to unskilled migrants. To regulate the arrival of skilled migrants, it called for the UK to adopt a points-based system akin to that employed by Australia. It advocated the establishment of a watchdog to help curb immigration, and bring the levels of net annual immigration down from the hundreds of thousands to between 20,000 and 50,000, which was the average level in the UK between 1950 and 2000. UKIP calls for all immigrants to require compulsory health insurance, and proposes that migrants be barred from claiming any state benefits until they had been resident in the UK for at least five years. UKIP gained traction from the fact that post-2008, immigration had come to the forefront of many Britons' minds as a result of increased EU migration and its concomitant social changes. By the 2015 general election, the political scientists James Dennison and Matthew Goodwin argued, UKIP had secured "ownership" of the immigration issue among British voters, having secured it from the Conservatives. However, the party's campaign against immigration has been accused of using racism and xenophobia to win votes. Political scientist David Art suggested that in its campaign to restrict immigration, UKIP had "flirted with xenophobia", while Daniel T. Dye stated that part of the party's appeal was its "sometimes-xenophobic populism", and the journalist
Daniel Trilling Daniel Trilling is a British journalist, editor and author. He was the editor of ''New Humanist'' magazine from 2013 to 2019. He writes about migration, nationalism and human rights and is the author of ''Lights in the Distance: exile and refuge ...
stated that UKIP tapped into the "anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim populism" that was popular in the late 2000s. The political scientist Simon Usherwood stated that UKIP's hardening of immigration policy "risked reinforcing the party's profile as a quasi-far-right grouping", elsewhere stating that the party was only held together by its opposition to the EU and immigration, suggesting that it had "no ideological coherence" beyond that. In its 2015 campaign, UKIP called for the foreign aid budget to be cut. It has also advocated a 40% increase in the UK's national defence budget. It opposes British military involvement in conflicts that are not perceived to be in the national interest, specifically rejecting the concept of
regime change war In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...
s through
humanitarian intervention Humanitarian intervention is the use or threat of military force by a state (or states) across borders with the intent of ending severe and widespread human rights violations in a state which has not given permission for the use of force. Human ...
ism. For instance, in 2014 it opposed the Cameron government's plans to intervene militarily against the government of
Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the S ...
in the Syrian civil war. In 2018, UKIP pledged to work with anti-EU populist group The Movement. The party was known for its pro-Russia stance on foreign policy.


Economic policy

On economic policy, UKIP shares the main three parties' acceptance of the core principles of a capitalist market economy, and the party is generally at ease with the global
free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ...
. The academics Simon Winlow, Steve Hall, and James Treadwell commented that on economic issues, "UKIP wants to have its cake and eat it. It wants to retain the best bits of the market economy while discarding what it considers the negative outcomes of 21st-century neoliberalism." They noted for instance that it wanted "free movement of capital" yet wanted to curtail "the free movement of workers across borders". On economic issues, UKIP's original activist base was largely libertarian, supporting an
economically liberal Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberali ...
approach. Its economic libertarian views have been influenced by classical liberalism and Thatcherism, with Thatcher representing a key influence on UKIP's thought. Farage has characterised UKIP as "the true inheritors" of Thatcher, claiming that the party never would have formed had Thatcher remained Prime Minister of the UK throughout the 1990s. Winlow, Hall, and Treadwell suggested that a UKIP government would pursue "hard-core Thatcherism" on economic policy. UKIP presents itself as a libertarian party, and the political scientists David Deacon and Dominic Wring described it as articulating "a potent brand of libertarian populism". However, commentators writing in ''
The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...
'', '' The Independent'', and the '' New Statesman'' have all challenged the description of UKIP as libertarian, highlighting its
socially conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institution ...
and economically protectionist policies as being contrary to a libertarian ethos. UKIP would allow businesses to favour British workers over migrants, and would repeal "much of" Britain's racial discrimination law, which was described as "shocking" by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government and viewed as discriminatory by others. However, Farage insisted that his comments regarding his party's policies on these matters had been "wilfully misinterpreted". Although the party did not have an official stance on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the party's former international trade spokesperson (
Lord Dartmouth Earl of Dartmouth is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1711 for William Legge, 2nd Baron Dartmouth. History The Legge family descended from Edward Legge, Vice-President of Munster. His eldest son William Legge was a ...
) and former health and social care spokesperson (
Louise Bours Louise Bours (born 23 December 1968), also known as Louise van de Bours, is a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North West England region. She was elected in 2014 as a UK Independence Party candidate but resigned from the p ...
) stated that they did wish the National Health Service to be included in the trade deal, according to the '' International Business Times''.


Social policy

In '' The Guardian'', commentator Ed Rooksby described UKIP's approach to many social issues as being "traditionalist and socially conservative", while political scientist Stephen Driver has referred to the party's appeals to "traditional social values". UKIP opposed the introduction of same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom. UKIP wants to repeal the Human Rights Act, and remove Britain from both the European Convention on Refugees and the
European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by t ...
(ECHR).
-
On the repeal of Britain's signatory to the ECHR, UKIP would like to see a referendum on the reintroduction of the death penalty in the UK. In 2015, Farage attracted widespread press attention for suggesting that HIV positive patients who were not British citizens should not receive treatment on the NHS. In that same speech he stated that the UK should put the NHS "there for British people and families, who in many cases have paid into the system for years". Farage has spoken in favour of an insurance-based system in the past, which he said would resemble the French and Dutch style system rather than an American style private system, but this was rejected by the party. He has commented, "we may have to think about ways in the future about dealing with health care differently". Critics of UKIP have claimed that the party's real desire is to dismantle and privatise the NHS, a claim bolstered by the publication of leaked documents showing that in 2013 the UKIP NEC privately spoke positively of NHS privatisation. Although Farage had long been reticent about focusing on public anxieties surrounding Muslims in Britain, he spoke out following the ''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting, claiming that there was a "fifth column" of Islamists in the UK who—while "mercifully small" in number—were "out to destroy our whole civilisation". At the same time he called for Western states to do more to promote their
Judeo-Christian The term Judeo-Christian is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's borrowing of Jewish Scripture to constitute the "Old Testament" of the Christian Bible, o ...
heritage, and criticised state multiculturalism for promoting social segregation, discouraging integration, and generating a "tick-box approach" to identity politics. In its 2017 manifesto, UKIP pledged to abolish the existence of sharia courts in the UK and ban the wearing of the niqab and burka in public; it claimed that these were needed to promote the integration of Muslims with wider British society. UKIP is the only major political party in the United Kingdom that does not endorse renewable energy and lower carbon emissions, and its media output regularly promotes
climate change denial Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or the ...
. Farage and other senior UKIP figures have repeatedly spoken out against the construction of
wind farms Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few h ...
, deeming them a blot on the rural landscape. UKIP's media present renewable energy as inefficient and unaffordable, and they promote the use of fossil fuels, nuclear energy and fracking. UKIP has announced that it would repeal the
Climate Change Act 2008 The Climate Change Act 2008 (c 27) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act makes it the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for all six Kyoto greenhouse gases for the year 2050 is at l ...
and has placed an emphasis on protecting the
Green Belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...
. In its 2015 election manifesto, UKIP promised to teach a chronological understanding of "British history and achievements" in schools, and it calls for the scrapping of sex education for children under 11. UKIP would introduce an option for students to take an apprenticeship qualification instead of four non-core GCSEs which can be continued at
A Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...
. Schools would be investigated by
OFSTED The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, includ ...
on the presentation of a petition to the Department for Education signed by 25% of parents or governors. UKIP have promoted the scrapping of the government target that 50% of school leavers attend university, and present the policy that tuition fees would be scrapped for students taking approved degrees in science, medicine, technology, engineering or mathematics. Farage argued that
British Overseas Territories The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
like
Gibraltar ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song = "Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gibra ...
should have representatives in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, akin to the privileges given to French overseas territories in France. Farage believes that all citizens for whom the British Parliament passes legislation, whether in the United Kingdom or its territories, deserve democratic representation in that Parliament.


Support


Financial backing

In 2008, Usherwood noted that UKIP relied heavily on a small number of major financial backers. According to ''The Guardian'', a leaked internal report to UKIP's executive committee dated to September 2012 shows that the party's leader argued that "the key to money for us will be the hedge fund industry". According to UKIP's annual returns to the Electoral Commission, in 2013 the party had a total income of £2,479,314. Of this, £714,492 was from membership and subscriptions, £32,115 from fundraising activities and £1,361,640 from donations. By law, individual donations over £7,500 must be reported. UKIP has several high-profile backers. In March 2009, the Conservative Party's biggest-ever donor, Stuart Wheeler, donated £100,000 to UKIP after criticising Cameron's stance towards the Treaty of Lisbon. He was then expelled from the Conservatives and in 2011 appointed treasurer of UKIP. In October 2014,
Arron Banks Arron Fraser Andrew Banks (born 1966) is a British businessman and political donor. He is the co-founder (with Richard Tice) of the Leave.EU campaign. Banks was previously one of the largest donors to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and helpe ...
, who previously gave £25,000 to the Conservatives, increased his UKIP donation from £100,000 to £1 million after Hague said he had never heard of him. The multi-millionaire Paul Sykes has helped finance the party, donating over £1 million to their 2014 campaign at the European Parliament. In December 2014,
Richard Desmond Richard Clive Desmond (born 8 December 1951) is a British publisher, businessman and former pornographer. According to the 2021 ''Sunday Times Rich List'', Desmond was the 107th richest person in the United Kingdom. He is the founder of North ...
, proprietor of
Express Newspapers Northern & Shell (holding company name Northern and Shell Network Ltd) is a British publishing group, founded in December 1974 and owned since then by Richard Desmond. Formerly a publisher of pornographic magazines including '' Penthouse'' and '' ...
, donated £300,000 to UKIP. Desmond had previously made the UKIP peer David Stevens his deputy chairman. The donation indicated that Desmond's papers, the '' Daily Express'', '' Sunday Express'', '' Daily Star'' and ''
Daily Star Sunday The ''Daily Star Sunday'' is a weekly tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom. It was launched as a sister title to the '' Daily Star'' on 15 September 2002. The ''Daily Star Sunday'' is published by Express Newspapers, which along wi ...
'', would back UKIP in the 2015 general election. Three weeks before the election, Desmond gave the party a further £1 million. In September 2016, the major UKIP donor, Arron Banks, said that UKIP would be "dead in the water" if
Diane James Diane Martine James (born 20 November 1959) is a British politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 2014 to 2019. She was briefly leader-elect of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from September 2 ...
did not become leader. Following her departure after 18 days, Banks said that he would leave UKIP if
Steven Woolfe Steven Marcus Woolfe (born 6 October 1967) is a British politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North West England from 2014 until 2019. Woolfe was born in Moss Side in Manchester and studied law at Aberystwyth Univ ...
was prevented from running for leader, and if two other members remained in the party: "If Neil Hamilton and Douglas Carswell KIP's only MPremain in the party, and the NEC decide that Steven Woolfe cannot run for leader, I will be leaving Ukip".


Membership

UKIP's membership numbers increased from 2002 to the time of the 2004 European Parliament election, before hovering around the 16,000 mark during the late 2000s.Feargal McGuinness,
Membership of UK political parties
'', House of Commons Library, 2012
In 2004, the party claimed 20,000 members, with this remaining broadly stable, and in June 2007 it had a recorded 16,700 members. By July 2013, the figure had grown to 30,000 before ending the year at 32,447. In 2014, the number was 36,000 on 22 April, by 7 May reached 37,000 and on 19 May, less than a fortnight later and only three days before the 2014 European Parliament election, rose to 38,000. In January 2015, UKIP membership was the fifth highest of British parties. Membership was 45,000 in May 2015, but since then has fallen to 32,757 in November 2016, and as low as 18,000 under Henry Bolton by January 2018. In June 2018, four political activists known through social media – Paul Joseph Watson,
Mark Meechan Mark Meechan () (born 19 October 1987) is a Scottish YouTuber and former UK Independence Party candidate for the European Parliament. He uses the online name Count Dankula. Meechan received press coverage when he posted a video showing him te ...
,
Carl Benjamin Carl Benjamin (born 1979), also known by his online pseudonym Sargon of Akkad, is a British far-right anti-feminist YouTuber and political commentator. A former member of the Eurosceptic right-wing UK Independence Party (UKIP), he was one of ...
, and Milo Yiannopoulos – joined the party. This was followed by the party gaining around five hundred members. In July 2018, it was reported the party had attracted 3,200 new members, a 15% increase. The party's report to The Electoral Commission of its accounts as of 31 December 2020 stated the party had a membership of 3,888.


Voter base

In its early years, UKIP targeted itself towards southern English, middle-class Eurosceptic voters, those who had been supporters of the Conservative Party until John Major's Conservative government signed the Maastricht Treaty. This led to the widespread perception that UKIP's supporters were primarily middle-class ex-Conservative voters, with commentator
Peter Oborne Peter Alan Oborne (; born 11 July 1957) is a British journalist and broadcaster. He is the former chief political commentator of ''The Daily Telegraph'', from which he resigned in early 2015. He is author of ''The Rise of Political Lying'', ''Th ...
characterising UKIP as "the Conservative Party in exile". After 2009, UKIP refocused its attention to appeal primarily to white British, working-class, blue-collar workers; those who had traditionally voted Labour or in some cases for Thatcher's Conservatives but who had ceased voting or begun to vote BNP since the emergence of the New Labour project in the 1990s. In this way, UKIP's support base does not line up with the historical left-right divide in British politics, instead being primarily rooted in class divisions. This mirrored the voting base of other radical right parties across Western Europe which had grown since the early 1990s. This scenario had come about following the rapid growth of the middle-classes and the concomitant decline of the working-class population in Western Europe; the centre-left, social-democratic parties who had traditionally courted the support of the working classes largely switched their attention to the newly emergent middle-classes, leaving their initial support base increasingly alienated and creating the vacuum which the radical right exploited. On the basis of their extensive study of data on the subject, in 2014 the political scientists
Matthew Goodwin Matthew James Goodwin (born 17 December 1981) is a British academic who is Professor of Politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent. he is a commisioner of the Social Mobility Commission. Early life ...
and Robert Ford concluded that "UKIP's support has a very clear social profile, more so than any of the mainstream parties. Their electoral base is old, male, working class, white and less educated". They found that 57% of professed UKIP supporters were over the age of 54, while only one in ten were under 35, which they attributed to the fact that UKIP's socially conservative and Eurosceptic platform appealed far more to Britain's older generations that their younger counterparts, who were more socially liberal and less antagonistic towards the EU. 57% of UKIP supporters were male, which Ford and Goodwin suggested was due to women voters being put off by a number of high-profile sexist remarks made by UKIP candidates. 99.6% of UKIP supporters identified as white, reflecting the fact that ethnic minorities tended to avoid the party. 55% of UKIP supporters had left school aged 16 or under, with only 24% having attended university, suggesting that the party primarily appealed to the least educated voters in society. Ford and Goodwin also found that UKIP's support base was more working-class than that of any other party, with 42% of supporters in
blue-collar A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involving manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and powe ...
jobs. Ford and Goodwin described UKIP's voters as primarily comprising the "left behind" sector of society, "older, less skilled and less well educated working-class voters" who felt disenfranchised from the mainstream political parties which had increasingly focused on attracting the support of middle-class swing voters. Ford and Goodwin nevertheless noted that UKIP was "not a purely blue-collar party but an alliance of manual workers, employers and the self-employed." Geoffrey Evans and Jon Mellon highlighted that UKIP receive "a greater proportion of their support from lower professionals and managers" than from any other class group. They highlighted that polls repeatedly demonstrated that UKIP drew more votes from Conservative voters than Labour ones. They suggested that the assumption that working-class voters who supported UKIP had previously been Labour voters was misplaced, suggesting that these people had ceased voting for Labour "a long time before UKIP were an effective political presence", having been alienated by Labour's "pro-middle class, pro-EU and, as it eventually turned out, pro-immigration agenda". In 2011, Goodwin, Ford, and David Cutts published a study that identified Euroscepticism as the main causal factor for voters supporting UKIP, with concern over immigration levels and distrust of the political establishment also featuring as important motives. They noted, however, that during elections for the European Parliament, UKIP was able to broaden its support to gain the vote of largely middle-class Eurosceptics who vote Conservative in other elections. From their analysis of the data, Ford and Goodwin stated that UKIP's support base has "strong parallels" both with that of Western Europe's other radical right parties and with the BNP during their electoral heyday. Conversely, an earlier study by Richard Whitaker and Philip Lynch, based on polling data from
YouGov YouGov is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. In 2007, it acquired US company Polimetrix, and since ...
, concluded that UKIP voters were distinct from those of far-right parties. The authors found that voter support for UKIP correlated with concerns about the value of immigration and a lack of trust in the political system, but the biggest explanatory factor for their support of UKIP was Euroscepticism. A further study by the same authors suggests that UKIP voters' core beliefs align very closely to those of the UKIP candidates; particularly so on issues surrounding European integration, which has resulted in Conservative voters switching to UKIP due to Conservative divisions on this issue. One study found that 63% of UKIP voters considered themselves to be right-wing, while 22% thought centrist and 16% thought leftist. 81% believed that immigration undermined British culture, a view shared by only half the wider British population. On economic issues, there was a divide between UKIP voters and the party itself. In contrast to the party's economic liberalism, UKIP supporters often held more leftist attitudes to the economy, with almost 80% opining that
big business Big business involves large-scale corporate-controlled financial or business activities. As a term, it describes activities that run from "huge transactions" to the more general "doing big things". In corporate jargon, the concept is commonly k ...
took advantage of working people and almost 70% thinking that privatisation had gone too far. UKIP has been most successful along England's eastern and southern coasts, in parts of south-west England, and in the Labour heartlands of Northern England and Wales. It has not done well in London and in university towns and urban areas with younger populations like Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, and Brighton. It has done well in areas with large numbers of old, white, and poorer people, and weaker in areas with larger numbers of younger, more ethnically and culturally diverse, and financially secure people. Ford and Goodwin noted that UKIP "barely registers" with young Britons, graduates, ethnic minorities, and pro-EU voters. According to an Opinium poll in December 2014 on the views of 17- to 22-year-olds, Farage was the least popular political leader. Only 3% of young people questioned said that they intended to vote for UKIP, compared with 19% among voters of all ages. The 17% who said they would vote outside the three main parties were four times more likely to vote for the Green Party than for UKIP. Conversely, a March 2015 Ipsos Mori poll found among 18- to 34-year-olds UKIP was polling nearly as well as the Green Party, somewhat contradicting the idea that Farage lacked appeal for younger voters. On the basis of their fieldwork among supporters of the
English Defence League The English Defence League (EDL) is a far-right, Islamophobic organisation in the United Kingdom. A social movement and pressure group that employs street demonstrations as its main tactic, the EDL presents itself as a single-issue movement ...
(EDL), an anti-Islam social movement, Winlow, Hall, and Treadwell noted that most EDL supporters whom they encountered intended to vote for UKIP in the build-up to the 2015 general election. UKIP supporters are sometimes nicknamed "kippers". In May 2017, in response to large defections from the party, Goodwin said "Former Kippers did not walk but literally sprinted over to the Conservatives."


Organisation


Leadership

According to Part VII of the UKIP constitution, the party leader is voted for by postal ballot by all paid-up party members "in good standing". The winner is the candidate with the simple majority of votes cast. If there is only one valid candidate for the position, they are elected without the need for a ballot. While the default term length is four years, the leader can obtain an extension of up to a year if there is an imminent General or European Parliament election; this must be approved by at least two-thirds of the 12-person National Executive Committee (NEC). If at least nine NEC members endorse a vote of no confidence in the leader, an Emergency General Meeting (EGM) will be called. When the leadership becomes vacant unexpectedly, the NEC has fourteen days to name an interim leader who exercises all leadership functions until the next leadership election. The leader has the power to name a Deputy Leader of their own choice and assign them whatever duty they choose.


Timeline


Deputy leadership


Party chairman


Spokespersons

The front bench team is divided into departmental sub-units, the principal ones being the economy, foreign policy and immigration. Sometimes the front bench team consists of more than just the principal positions.


Regions

UKIP's organisation is divided into twelve regions: London, South East, South West, Eastern, East Midlands, West Midlands, Yorkshire, North East, North West, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. An additional, thirteenth branch, operates in the
British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
of
Gibraltar ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song = "Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gibra ...
; it held its first public meeting at the Lord Nelson pub in April 2013. At the end of 2013, UKIP Scotland was dissolved after infighting tore the regional party apart; the party's administrative body was dissolved, Mike Scott-Hayward (the chairman and chief fundraiser) quit, and Farage fired Lord
Christopher Monckton Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (born 14 February 1952) is a British public speaker and hereditary peer. He is known for his work as a journalist, Conservative political advisor, UKIP political candidate, and fo ...
via email. The national party and UKIP Scotland focused on supporting the candidates for the
2014 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom The 2014 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2014 European Parliament election, held on Thursday 22 May 2014, coinciding with the 2014 local elections in England and Northern Ireland. In total, 73 Members of ...
. After David Coburn won an MEP seat in Scotland in those elections, he was elected as leader of UKIP Scotland. Veteran and former long-serving Antrim and Newtownabbey-based councillor, Robert Hill was appointed by Gerard Batten as UKIP's Spokesman for Northern Ireland in May 2018. In August 2018, Welsh Assembly Member Gareth Bennett was elected as leader of UKIP in Wales after a membership ballot.


Representatives


House of Commons

In the UK, the first-past-the-post voting system for electing MPs to the House of Commons was a significant barrier to UKIP, whose support was widely distributed across different areas rather than being strongly focused in particular constituencies. Further, the system encouraged
tactical voting Strategic voting, also called tactical voting, sophisticated voting or insincere voting, occurs in voting systems when a voter votes for another candidate or party than their ''sincere preference'' to prevent an undesirable outcome. For example, ...
, with many UKIP supporters believing that a vote for the party would be a wasted vote. Recognising this, Farage believed that the best way to win a seat in the House of Commons was to win a
by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
, with UKIP contesting a number of these from 2010 onward. Over the next few years, it contested a number of by-elections around the country, coming second in both
Barnsley Central Barnsley Central is a constituency in South Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2011 by Dan Jarvis of the Labour Party. Constituency profile Barnsley Central is generally an urban seat and has a large m ...
and Rotherham. In 2008,
Bob Spink Robert Michael Spink (born 1 August 1948, in Haworth, Worth Valley, Yorkshire) is a former member of parliament (MP) for Castle Point in Essex (1992 to 1997, and 2001 to 2010) who was convicted of electoral fraud in 2017. Spink was elected ...
, the MP for
Castle Point Castle Point is a local government district with borough status in south Essex, east of central London. The borough comprises the towns and villages of Canvey Island, Hadleigh, South Benfleet, and Thundersley. The borough council is situated a ...
, resigned the Tory
whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally ...
(becoming an Independent), but in April that year joined UKIP. However, in November he appeared again as an Independent in Commons proceedings, ultimately losing the seat to a Conservative in
2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A ...
. In 2014, two Conservative MPs changed allegiance to UKIP and resigned their seats to fight by-elections for UKIP. Douglas Carswell won the
Clacton by-election The 2014 by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Clacton in Essex, England, took place on 9 October 2014. The by-election was triggered by the Conservative MP for Clacton, Douglas Carswell, defecting to the UK Independence Party (UK ...
on 9 October, making him the first MP to be elected representing UKIP.
Mark Reckless Mark John Reckless (born 6 December 1970) is a British politician who served as a Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales East from 2016 until 2021, having previously served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochester and Strood from 2010 to ...
was also victorious in the Rochester and Strood by-election on 20 November. At the 2015 general election, Carswell kept his seat in Clacton but Reckless lost Rochester to the Conservative Kelly Tolhurst. UKIP had 3,881,129 votes (12.6%) and was the third largest party on vote share, yet it won only one seat. Because of this, there were calls from some in UKIP for a voting reform in favour of proportional representation. Carswell quit the party in March 2017 to become an independent, leaving UKIP without any MPs in the Commons. In the 2017 election, a
snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...
initiated by PM
Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
and scheduled for 8 June 2017, UKIP got 1.9% of the votes (after 12.6% in the 2015 election) and no seats in the House of Commons.


House of Lords

On 24 June 1995, UKIP gained its first member of the House of Lords, The Lord Grantley, who had joined the party in 1993 from the Conservatives and had recently succeeded to his father's titles. However, with the coming House of Lords Act 1999, he decided not to stand for election as a continuing member, and so left the House in November 1999. Earlier in 1999, UKIP had gained a second peer in the House of Lords, The Earl of Bradford, but he, too, left the House in November 1999 because of the House of Lords Act. The Lord Pearson of Rannoch and The Lord Willoughby de Broke both defected to UKIP in 2007, giving the party its first representation in the House of Lords since the departure of Lord Grantley and Lord Bradford. The Lord Pearson of Rannoch went on to serve as party leader from November 2009 to September 2010. On 18 September 2012, The Lord Stevens of Ludgate joined UKIP, having sat as an Independent Conservative since his expulsion from the Conservatives in 2004. In Autumn 2018, Lord Willoughby de Broke left UKIP, reducing the party's representation in the upper house back down to two. Lord Stevens also left the party, in December 2018, leaving former leader Lord Pearson as UKIP's sole peer. In October 2019, Lord Pearson resigned his membership of the party, leaving the party with no representatives in the House of Lords.


Devolved parliaments and assemblies

UKIP competes electorally in all four parts of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland In October 2012, UKIP gained its first representation in a devolved Assembly the Northern Ireland Assembly in
David McNarry David McNarry (born 25 May 1948) is a UK Independence Party (UKIP) politician in Northern Ireland, who was the leader of UKIP Northern Ireland from 2012 to 2016. He stood for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in North Down in the 1982 Assembly el ...
, MLA for
Strangford Strangford (from Old Norse ''Strangr fjörðr'', meaning "strong sea-inlet") is a small village at the mouth of Strangford Lough, on the Lecale peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 475 at the 2001 Census. On the ...
, who had left the Ulster Unionist Party. The party however failed to continue its representation at the 2016 election, coming within a hundred votes of taking a seat in East Antrim. This seat was unsuccessfully contested in the 2017 election. Scotland UKIP's support has been particularly weak in Scotland, where it has no representatives in the devolved parliament. UKIP fielded candidates at the Scottish Parliament election on 5 May 2011, when its platform included a commitment to keep the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, while replacing the separately-elected
Members of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; gd, Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA; sco, Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The add ...
with the Members of the House of Commons elected in Scotland. The party fielded candidates on the regional lists in the 2016 election without any success. In the
2021 Scottish Parliament election The 2021 Scottish Parliament election took place on 6 May 2021, under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998. All 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament were elected in the sixth election since the parliament was re-established in 1999. The ele ...
candidates were again fielded on regional lists. Wales The party also fielded candidates for the
Senedd The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gov ...
. In the 2016 election, it entered the Assembly for the first time, winning seven of 60 seats. However, following the resignations of Caroline Jones,
Mark Reckless Mark John Reckless (born 6 December 1970) is a British politician who served as a Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales East from 2016 until 2021, having previously served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochester and Strood from 2010 to ...
,
Nathan Gill Nathan Lee Gill (born 6 July 1973) is a British politician, who was the Leader of Reform UK Wales from March to May 2021, when he resigned from the party. He previously served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Wales from 2014 to J ...
and Michelle Brown, by March 2019 the party's representation had fallen to three AMs. UKIP ceased to have a formal Welsh Assembly group after David Rowlands resigned in May 2019 to form a new Brexit Party group with Reckless, Jones and
Mandy Jones Amanda Ellen "Mandy" Jones is a British former racing cyclist born in 1962 who won the women's world road race championship in 1982. Biography Jones joined the West Pennine Road Club to ride on Sunday outings. She rode her first race in 1974 ...
(who had replaced Nathan Gill on his resignation as an AM). UKIP were left without any Senedd members after the
2021 Senedd election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length&nb ...


Local government

UKIP initially paid little attention to local government elections. However, this changed after Farage observed that building localised strongholds of support in various parts of the country had been the process by which the Liberal Democrats had entered the House of Commons, and that this was a strategy that could benefit UKIP. UKIP subsequently focused on the 2011 local elections, in which it fielded over 1,100 candidates, winning seven seats and becoming the main opposition in over 100. The first UKIP local council election win occurred when one of its members was elected to
South Cambridgeshire District Council South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...
in 2000. A number of Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour and Independent local councillors in all four constituent nations of the UK defected to UKIP over subsequent years, with the most recent defections to date (May to July 2013) coming from former Conservative councillors in the London Boroughs of Merton,
Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the Lo ...
and
Havering The London Borough of Havering () in East London, England, forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 259,552 inhabitants; the principal town is Romford, while other communities are Hornchurch, Upminster, Collier Row and Rainham. The b ...
, and from Labour in
Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England ...
and North-East Lincolnshire. In May 2013, 33 English and one Welsh council held local elections, with UKIP gaining 139 seats for a total of 147, with significant gains in Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Kent. In the 2013 local elections, UKIP won 147 seats and established itself as the largest opposition party in six English county councils. At the
2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...
and 2014 local elections, UKIP made significant gains to become the fourth largest party in terms of councillors in England, and fifth largest in the UK, with over 300 seats (out of about 21,000). In the 2015 local elections, UKIP took control of Thanet District Council, its first majority control of a council. However, the party lost control later in the year after several of its councillors defected and it lost its majority. UKIP later took back control as a majority after winning the 2016 Northwood ward by-election, taking its number of councillors up to 29. In the 2016 local elections, UKIP won 58 council seats, an increase of 25. In the
2017 United Kingdom local elections The 2017 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 4 May 2017. Local elections were held across Great Britain, with elections to 35 English local authorities and all councils in Scotland and Wales. Newly created combined authority m ...
, UKIP lost all of the seats it was defending but gained one from Labour on
Lancashire County Council Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. It consists of 84 councillors. Since the 2017 election, the council has been under Conservative control. Prior to the 2009 La ...
. in the
2018 United Kingdom local elections Council elections in England were held on Thursday 3 May 2018. Elections were held in all 32 London boroughs, 34 metropolitan boroughs, 67 district and borough councils and 17 unitary authorities. There were also direct elections for the mayo ...
, UKIP lost all but 3 of the 126 seats it was defending. In the
2019 United Kingdom local elections Local elections in parts of the United Kingdom were held on Thursday 2 May 2019, with 248 English local councils, six directly elected mayors in England, and all 11 local councils in Northern Ireland being contested. A total of 8,886 council ...
, UKIP suffered severe losses, with its number of councillors collapsing by 145 to 31, in the districts where votes were held that year. Its worst result was in Thanet where it lost 33 councillors. In the
2021 United Kingdom local elections 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
the party's support fell away and all the 48 council seats in England the party were defending were lost. No seats were won in the London Assembly, Police and Crime Commissioners or elections for Mayors. The 2022 local elections saw the party lose all three seats it was defending from 2018.


European Parliament

As a result of its hard Eurosceptic approach, UKIP does not recognise the legitimacy of the European Parliament, and under Sked's leadership refused to take any of the EP seats that it won. This changed after 1997, when the party decided that its elected representatives would take such seats to publicise its anti-EU agenda. As a result of the
1999 European parliament election The 1999 European Parliament election was a European election for all 626 members of the European Parliament held across the 15 European Union member states on 10, 11 and 13 June 1999. The voter turn-out was generally low, except in Belgium and L ...
, three UKIP MEPs were elected to the European Parliament. Together with Eurosceptic parties from other nations, they formed a new European parliamentary group called
Europe of Democracies and Diversities Europe of Democracies and Diversities (EDD) was an Eurosceptic political group with seats in the European Parliament between 1999 and 2004. Following the 2004 European elections, the group reformed as Independence/Democracy Independence/Demo ...
(EDD). Following the
2004 European parliament election The 2004 European Parliament election was held between 10 and 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom. The European Parliamental parties could not be voted for, but electe ...
, 37 MEPs from the UK, Poland, Denmark and Sweden founded a new European Parliamentary group called
Independence and Democracy Independence/Democracy (IND/DEM) was a Eurosceptic political group active during the 2004–2009 term of the European Parliament. The group was the successor to the Europe of Democracies and Diversities (EDD) group. The group collapsed followi ...
as a direct successor to the EDD group. After the
2009 European parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making th ...
, UKIP was a founder member of a new right-wing grouping called
Europe of Freedom and Democracy Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) was a Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament. The group was formed following the 2009 European parliamentary election, mostly composed of elements of the Independence/Democracy (IND/DEM) and ...
(EFD) comprising Eurosceptic, radical right, nationalist, national-conservative and other political factions. This group was more right-wing than the previous term's Independence and Democracy group. Following the
2014 European parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...
, the EFD group was reconstituted as the
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD or EFD²) was a Eurosceptic and populist political group in the European Parliament. The EFDD group was a continuation for the Eighth European Parliament of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD ...
(EFDD or EFD2) group on 24 June 2014, with a significant changes to group composition, including the Five Star Movement of Italy, a total of 48 members. The EFDD group lost official status in October 2014 when the defection of the Latvian MEP
Iveta Grigule Iveta is a given name. Notable people with the name include: People * Iveta Apkalna (born 1976), Latvian organist * Iveta Bartošová (1966–2014) was a Czech singer, actress and celebrity *Iveta Benešová Iveta Benešová () (formerly Melz ...
meant its membership no longer met the required number of states for Parliamentary groups (at least seven different member states). On 20 October, the EFDD announced it had restored the requisite seven state diversity by recruiting
Robert Iwaszkiewicz Robert Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (born 17 May 1962) is a Polish politician of the KORWiN who was elected in May 2014 as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Biography Originally a non-inscrit in the EP, he joined the Europe of Freedom and ...
, one of four representatives of the far-right Polish party
Congress of the New Right The Congress of the New Right ( pl, Kongres Nowej Prawicy, Nowa Prawica or just KNP) is an economically libertarian, socially conservative and Eurosceptic political party in Poland. The party was founded on 25 March 2011 by Janusz Korwin-Mikke ...
. In December 2014 UKIP co-founded the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe, a European political party whose membership is composed of several member parties of the EFDD parliamentary group. In the 2009–14 parliament, UKIP ranked 76th out of 76 for attendance, took part in 61% of votes, and had three of the six lowest attending MEPs, which led to criticism from other parties and ex-UKIP MEPs that low participation may damage British interests. Between July 2014 and May 2015, its 23 MEPs maintained their record as the least active, participating on average in only 62.29% of votes. In response to criticism of low participation by UKIP MEPs in the EU Parliament, Farage has said that "Our objective as MEPs is not to keep voting endlessly for more EU legislation and to take power away from Westminster."


Members of the European Parliament

UKIP had no members in the European Parliament following the 2019 EU election. Twenty-four UKIP representatives were elected in the 2014 election, but twenty subsequently defected, one was expelled and three lost their seats in the 2019 election. For a full list of defections see
here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a ...
.
James Carver James Bruce Carver (born 15 August 1969) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands region between 2014 and 2019. He was elected in 2014 for the UK Independence Party, second on the l ...
left UKIP to sit as an independent on 28 May 2018. William Dartmouth left the party on 26 September 2018 to sit as an independent, accusing Batten of "hijacking the party to campaign against Islam as a religion" and associating himself with "outlandish people and extreme right-wing groups".
Bill Etheridge William Milroy Etheridge (born 18 March 1970) is an English politician who was previously a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands region. He was elected in 2014 as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate, but left the ...
followed shortly afterwards, on 2 October 2018, saying that the party under Batten's leadership "is seen by voters as a vehicle of hate towards Muslims and the gay community". In November 2018,
Patrick O'Flynn Patrick James O'Flynn (born 29 August 1965) is an English journalist and Social Democratic Party (SDP) politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East of England from 2014 to 2019. He was elected for the UK Indep ...
resigned to join the
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...
in protest over UKIP's move to the "hard right", and
Louise Bours Louise Bours (born 23 December 1968), also known as Louise van de Bours, is a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North West England region. She was elected in 2014 as a UK Independence Party candidate but resigned from the p ...
became an independent MEP. Former leader Nigel Farage quit on 6 December 2018, as did Scottish MEP David Coburn. Another former leader, Paul Nuttall, quit the party the following day, as did London Assembly Member Peter Whittle. It was reported that
Tim Aker Timür Mark "Tim" Aker (born 23 May 1985) is a British politician who was a Member of the European Parliament for the East of England region. He was elected as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate in 2014. He was head of UKIP's Policy Unit f ...
had also quietly quit the party earlier in 2018. Julia Reid announced her resignation from UKIP on 8 December 2018, with
Jonathan Bullock Jonathan Bullock (born 3 March 1963) is an English politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East Midlands constituency until the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020. He was third on the UKIP ...
following the next day.
Jill Seymour Jill Seymour (born 8 May 1958) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands from 2014 to 2019. Elected for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in 2014, in April 2019 she defected to the B ...
,
Jane Collins Jane Maria Collins (born 17 February 1962) is a British politician and horse show-jumper who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2014 to 2019. She was elected in May 2014 as a member of the UK ...
and
Margot Parker Margaret Lucille Jeanne Parker (born 24 July 1943) is an English politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East Midlands region between 2014 and 2019. She was born in Grantham and educated at Kesteven and Granth ...
left for the Brexit Party on 15 April 2019, with the first of those three citing the party's current direction and occupation of 'the extreme right of politics' and the second citing Batten's 'sick' defence of Carl Benjamin's rape comments. On 17 April, Jonathan Arnott and Ray Finch both defected to The Brexit Party and, along with Seymour, Collins and Parker, sat in the EFDD group. As of April 2019, Batten and Agnew were members of the
Europe of Nations and Freedom Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF; french: link=no, Europe des nations et des libertés, ENL) was a political group in the European Parliament launched on 15 June 2015. The group was the smallest within the European Parliament during the eighth ...
group in the European Parliament while Hookem was ''
Non-Inscrit Non-Inscrits (; abbreviated NI; also non-attached members, abbreviated NA) are Members of the European Parliament (MEP) who do not belong to one of the recognised political groups. These MEPs may be members of a national party, or of a Europe ...
'' (unattached). All lost their seats in the European Parliament in June 2019.


Election results


European Parliament elections


General elections

During the 2010–15 Parliament, two Conservative MPs defected to UKIP and were re-elected in subsequent by-elections. At the 2015 general election, UKIP retained one of these seats ( Clacton) and received over 30% of the vote in Boston and Skegness, South Thanet,
Heywood and Middleton Heywood and Middleton is a constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Chris Clarkson of the Conservative Party. Constituency profile The constituency covers the west half of the ...
, Thurrock and
Rochester and Strood Rochester and Strood is a constituency in Kent represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Kelly Tolhurst, a Conservative. Since 2022, she has served as Government Deputy Chief Whip and Treasurer of the Household. ...
. It lost its only seat in the 2017 election, when Clacton was regained by the Conservatives.


Reception


Other political groups

In campaigning on emotive issues, UKIP has proved divisive. Popular stereotypes have framed it as a far-right party, and portrayed its activists as old white men holding offensive views. The party has faced vocal opposition from
anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
groups such as Hope not Hate, who have accused it of tapping into nationalist and xenophobic sentiment in its campaigns. Writing for '' The New York Times Magazine'',
Geoffrey Wheatcroft Geoffrey Albert Wheatcroft (born 23 December 1945) is a British journalist, author, and historian. Early life and education Wheatcroft is the son of Stephen Frederick Wheatcroft (1921–2016), OBE, and his first wife, Joyce (née Reed). He wa ...
noted that there had been "a concerted campaign to brand UKIP as racist, an accusation that some of its own activists have done nothing to discourage." Goodwin and Caitlin Milazzo highlighted that Farage had been "routinely ridiculed and dismissed", at best being portrayed as "a beer-swilling populist who wanted to drag Britain back to the 1950s" while at worst depicted as "a racist... would-be demagogue" who secretly wanted to overthrow the UK's liberal
parliamentary democracy A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of t ...
. For many years, mainstream political figures derided or demeaned the importance of UKIP, although this did little to obstruct its electoral advances. By 2014, at which point UKIP was securing significant electoral support in the European Parliamentary elections, the main parties began to take it more seriously and devoted more time to countering the electoral threat it posed to them, in turn drawing more journalistic attention to the party. This increased attention gave the party the "oxygen of publicity" which helped bring the party to the attention of previously inattentive voters. Many on Britain's centre-left have been reluctant to accept that UKIP was hindering public support for Labour, instead believing that they were primarily a problem for the Conservatives and would thus help produce a Labour victory. Labour found that their campaign strategy of accusing UKIP of racism backfired, as rather than distancing UKIP supporters from the party it contributed to the perception that Labour failed to understand widespread concerns regarding immigration. A December 2014 poll by
ComRes Savanta ComRes is a market research consultancy based in London, England. Established in 2003 as Communicate Research Ltd, ComRes was a founding member of the British Polling Council in 2004, and is one of the UK's best known polling companies. ...
found that voters saw UKIP as closer to the centre-ground of politics than the Conservatives.


Media and academia

The British press have publicised statements made by UKIP activists and candidates which have been regarded as racist, sexist or otherwise bigoted. Among the examples of UKIP representatives and supporters embarrassing the party have been an MEP who called for a ban on the construction of mosques and for all British Muslims to sign a code of conduct, a councillor who suggested that shops should be allowed to refuse service to women and homosexuals, and a council candidate who compared Islam to Nazism and told black comedian Lenny Henry to leave Britain after the latter called for greater ethnic diversity within the UK's creative industries. In 2015, a documentary called ''Meet the Ukippers'' filmed activists making racist statements; one said "the only people I do have a problem with are negroes". For many years such individuals were internally tolerated within the party, although as part of Farage's push to professionalise the party a number of its members, such as 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 ...
, were expelled for making comments that brought UKIP into disrepute. In 2018, Jo Marney—who was then the girlfriend of the party leader Henry Bolton—was suspended from UKIP after it was revealed that she had sent texts stating that black Africans were "ugly". In these messages, she had criticised
Meghan Markle Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (; born Rachel Meghan Markle; August 4, 1981) is an American member of the British royal family and former actress. She is the wife of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III. Meghan was ...
for marrying into the British royal family, stating that Markle was "a dumb little commoner" and "a black American. Pushing their way to the top slowly. Next will be a Muslim PM and a black king." In a May 2014
YouGov YouGov is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. In 2007, it acquired US company Polimetrix, and since ...
survey, 47% considered the media to be biased against UKIP, which was double the percentage who deemed the media biased against any other party. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
received almost 1,200 complaints about its coverage of the 2014 European and local elections; 149 claimed that the BBC were biased against UKIP, while the rest claimed that it gave disproportionate attention to the party. The BBC defended its coverage. Farage accused the BBC of a "liberal bias", particularly on issues of immigration, the EU, and climate change. David Deacon and Dominic Wring's examination of press coverage of UKIP during their 2014 campaign demonstrated that of the elite newspapers, the pro-EU titles ''The Guardian'' and '' The Observer'' gave the most coverage to perceived racist and intolerant aspects of the party, while the Eurosceptic titles '' The Times'' and '' The Sunday Times'' instead focused on questioning the propriety and integrity of UKIP representatives. Among the populist tabloids, '' The Sun''/''
Sun on Sunday ''The Sun'' is a British Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper, published by the News UK#News Group Newspapers Ltd, News Group Newspapers division of News UK, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. It was found ...
'' and the '' Daily Mirror''/'' Sunday Mirror'' were found to contain the most negative coverage of UKIP, while the '' Daily Express'' and '' Sunday Express''—owned by UKIP donor Richard Desmond—gave significantly lower coverage to the gaffes and prejudices of UKIP representatives. Deacon and Wring noted that the majority of those right-wing newspapers that share UKIP's views on immigration also share the perspective of more liberal newspapers that many of UKIP's interventions are racist. This right-wing press opposition to UKIP may result from the allegiance that these newspapers have to the Conservatives, and resulting perception of UKIP as an electoral threat. Academic research has been carried out into UKIP. In 2016, it was noted that most of this had focused on examining the party's electoral support base, its consequences for other parties, and the possibilities and prospects of a referendum on continued EU membership, with little having focused on an examination of the party's policies. Two currents have emerged among those seeking to interpret UKIP: the first, and generally older, current views them as a manifestation of Britain's strong Eurosceptic movement, while the second seeks to explain their position in the British parliamentary system while drawing upon the comparative literature on right-wing populist parties elsewhere in Europe.


See also

* Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom * Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum *
2010s in United Kingdom political history 2010s political history refers to significant political and societal historical events in the United Kingdom in the 2010s, presented as a historical overview in narrative format. There were four Prime Ministers during this time (Brown, Camero ...


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * *


External links

* {{Authority control 1993 establishments in the United Kingdom Eurosceptic parties in the United Kingdom Far-right political parties in the United Kingdom Nationalist parties in the United Kingdom Non-interventionist parties Organisations based in Devon Political parties established in 1993 Right-wing populism in the United Kingdom Right-wing populist parties Right-wing politics in the United Kingdom Right-wing parties in Europe Conservative parties in the United Kingdom Anti-Islam political parties in Europe Organisations that oppose LGBT rights in the United Kingdom Climate change denial