UK Independence Party
UK Independence Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | UKIP |
| General Secretary | Donald Mackay[1] |
| Leader | Nick Tenconi[2] |
| Honorary President | Neil Hamilton[3] |
| Chairman | Ben Walker |
| Treasurer | Ian Garbutt[1] |
| Founder | Alan Sked |
| Founded | 3 September 1993 |
| Preceded by | Anti-Federalist League |
| Headquarters | Henleaze Business Centre, 13 Harbury Road, Henleaze, Bristol, BS9 4PN[4] |
| Youth wing | Young Independence |
| Membership (2020) | 3,888[5] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-right[20] Historical: Right-wing[21] to far-right[22] |
| Religion | Christianity[23] |
| National affiliation | Patriots Alliance – English Democrats and UKIP[24][25] |
| European affiliation |
|
| European Parliament group | |
| Colours | Purple Gold |
| Slogan | People not politics, "The New Right" |
| Councillors[26] | 0 / 18,645 [27][28] |
| Website | |
| ukip | |
The UK Independence Party (UKIP /ˈjuːkɪp/ ⓘ YOO-kip) is a far-right Christian nationalist political party in the United Kingdom.[29] Originally gaining prominence as a Eurosceptic right-wing populist party, it reached its peak in the mid-2010s under the leadership of Nigel Farage, when it gained two members of Parliament (both through defections) and was the largest party representing the UK in the European Parliament. Farage resigned as leader following the UK's vote for Brexit in 2016. It has since become a fringe far-right party. In February 2025 Nick Tenconi, the COO of Turning Point UK, became leader, who has pivoted the party toward Christian nationalism.[7]
UKIP was one of the first parties formed with the specific aim of advancing the cause of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union (EU). It originated as the Anti-Federalist League, a single-issue Eurosceptic party established in London by Alan Sked in 1991. It was renamed as the UK Independence Party in 1993. Its growth was slow and it was largely eclipsed by the Eurosceptic Referendum Party, founded by James Goldsmith in 1994, until that party's 1997 dissolution. In the same year, Sked was ousted by a faction led by Farage, who became the party's preeminent figure. In 2006, Farage 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 EU referendum, Farage stepped down as UKIP leader, later joining the Brexit Party (now known as Reform UK), which is widely considered to be UKIP's successor.[30] UKIP subsequently saw its vote share and membership heavily decline, losing all its elected representatives amid much internal instability and a drift toward a far-right, anti-Islam stance.
UKIP was previously characterised by political scientists as a right-wing populist party. It promotes a British unionist and British nationalist agenda, encouraging a unitary British identity in opposition to growing Welsh, Irish and Scottish nationalisms. UKIP has also placed emphasis on lowering immigration, rejecting multiculturalism, and opposing what it calls the "Islamification" of Britain. Influenced by Thatcherism and classical liberalism, it describes itself as economically libertarian and promotes liberal economic policies. It is socially conservative on LGBT rights, education policy, and criminal justice. Having an ideological heritage stemming from the right wing of the Conservative Party, Farage distinguished it from the political establishment through heavy use of populist rhetoric, describing its supporters as the "People's Army".
Governed by its leader and national executive committee, UKIP is divided into 12 regional groups. While gaining electoral support from various sectors of British society, psephologists 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 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
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UKIP began as the Anti-Federalist League, a Eurosceptic political party established in 1991 by the historian Alan Sked. The League opposed the Maastricht Treaty, which was signed by UK Prime Minister John Major in 1992 and created the European Union (EU), and sought to sway the governing Conservative Party towards removing the United Kingdom from the EU.[31] A former Liberal Party 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.[32] Under the Anti-Federalist League's banner, Sked was a candidate for Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath at the 1992 general election, gaining 0.2% of the vote.[33] At a party 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 (BNP).[34][35]
UKIP contested the 1994 European Parliament election with little financing and much infighting, securing itself as the fifth-largest party in that election with 1% of the vote.[36] During this period, UKIP was viewed as a typical single-issue party by commentators, some of whom drew comparisons with the French Poujadist movement.[37] Following the election, UKIP lost much support to the Referendum Party; founded by the multi-millionaire James Goldsmith in 1994, it shared UKIP's Eurosceptic approach but was far better funded.[38] In the 1997 general election, UKIP fielded 194 candidates and secured 0.3% of the national vote; only one of its candidates, Nigel Farage in Salisbury, secured over 5% of the vote and had his deposit returned.[39] UKIP was beaten by the Referendum Party in 163 of the 165 seats in which they stood against each other.[39] The Referendum Party disbanded following Goldsmith's death later that year, and many of its candidates joined UKIP.[40]
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.[41] Sked left the party, alleging that it had been infiltrated by racist and far-right elements, including BNP spies.[42][43] This connection was emphasised in the press, particularly when Farage was photographed meeting with BNP activists.[42] 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 (Holmes), and the East of England (Jeffrey Titford).[44]
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.[45][46] 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.[47] In 2002, the former Conservative MP Roger Knapman was elected UKIP leader, bringing with him the experience of mainstream politics that the party had lacked.[48] Knapman hired the political campaign consultant Dick Morris to advise UKIP. The party adopted the slogan "say no" and launched a national billboard campaign.[49] In 2004, UKIP reorganised itself nationally as a private company limited by guarantee.[50]
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 12 seats. This had been made possible through increased funding from major donors and the celebrity endorsement of former chat show host Robert Kilroy-Silk, who stood as a candidate in the East Midlands.[51] 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.[52][53] Two weeks later, he founded his own rival, Veritas, taking a number of UKIP members—including both of its London Assembly members—with him.[54]
After Kilroy-Silk's defection, UKIP's membership declined by a third and donations dropped by over a half.[55] 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.[56] 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.[57] 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.[58]
In 2006, Farage was elected leader.[59] 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.[60] He sought to broaden UKIP's image from that of a single-issue party by introducing an array of conservative policies, including reducing immigration, tax cuts, restoring grammar schools, and climate change denial.[61] 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 direction.[62] According to Farage, Cameron was "a socialist" whose priorities were "gay marriage, foreign aid, and wind farms".[63] Cameron was highly critical of UKIP, referring to them as "fruitcakes, loonies, and closet racists".[64] The Conservatives' largest donor, Stuart Wheeler, donated £100,000 to UKIP after criticising Cameron's stance towards the Treaty of Lisbon and the EU.[65] After trust in the mainstream parties was damaged by the parliamentary expenses scandal, UKIP received an immediate surge in support.[66] This helped it in the 2009 European Parliament election, 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.[67][68] During the election UKIP outperformed the BNP, whose electoral support base collapsed shortly afterward.[69]
In September 2009, Farage resigned as leader.[70][71] The subsequent leadership election 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 being worn in public.[72][73][74] Pearson was unpopular with the UKIP grassroots, who viewed him as an establishment figure too favourable to the Conservatives.[75] In the 2010 general election, UKIP fielded 558 candidates and secured 3.1% of the vote (919,471 votes), but won no seats.[76][77] Pearson stood down as leader in August, and Farage was re-elected in the leadership election with more than 60% of the vote.[78][79][80][81]
Farage placed new emphasis on developing areas of local support through growth in local councils.[82] Observing that the party had done well in areas dominated by white blue-collar workers 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.[83] UKIP support would be bolstered by dissatisfaction with the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government and the perception that its austerity policies benefited the socio-economic elite while imposing hardship on most Britons.[84] 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.[85] 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 four to 147.[86][87][88] Four years earlier it had averaged 16% of the vote.[89] This was the best result for a party outside the big three in British politics since the Second World War,[90] with UKIP being described as "the most popular political insurgency" in Britain since the Social Democratic Party during the 1980s.[91]
Entering mainstream politics: 2014–2016
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In March 2014, Ofcom awarded UKIP "major party status".[92] In the 2014 local elections, UKIP won 163 seats, an increase of 128, but did not take control of any council.[93] In the 2014 European Parliament elections, UKIP received the greatest number of votes (27.5%) of any British party, which elected 24 MEPs.[94][95] The party won seats in every region of Britain, including its first in Scotland.[96] 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.[97] The victory established Farage and UKIP as "truly household names".[98] 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.[99]
UKIP gained its first MP when Conservative defector Douglas Carswell won the seat of Clacton during an October 2014 by-election.[100][101] In November fellow Conservative defector Mark Reckless became UKIP's second MP in a Rochester and Strood by-election.[102][103] 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,[104] with Carswell retaining his seat and Reckless losing his.[105][106] In the run-up to the election, Farage stated that he would resign as party leader if he did not win South Thanet.[107][108] On failing to do so, he resigned,[109][110] although was reinstated three days later when the NEC rejected his resignation.[111][112] A period of 'civil war' broke out among senior membership between those who favoured Farage's leadership and those seeking a change.[113] In the 2015 Oldham West and Royton by-election the party attacked Jeremy Corbyn 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, UKIP nearly tripled their share of votes (from 4.7 per cent to 12.5 per cent) and won seven seats.[114] 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.[115]
2016 Brexit referendum
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.[116] 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 campaign group.[117] 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.[117] 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.[118] The loss of its MEPs would result in the loss of its primary institutional representation and a key source of its funding.[119]
Decline: 2016–present
Downward turn (2016–2018)
After the referendum, Farage resigned as UKIP leader.[120] Diane James was elected as his successor, but resigned after 18 days.[121] Farage's former deputy, Paul Nuttall, was elected leader that month.[122] In March 2017, the party's only MP, Carswell, left the party to sit as an independent.[123] The following month, Reckless also left UKIP.[124] In the 2017 local elections, UKIP lost all 145 seats it was defending, but gained one on Lancashire County Council.[125] These results led several prominent former UKIP members to call for the party to be disbanded.[126] 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.[127] In July 2017, it lost its majority on Thanet council when Councillor Beverly Martin defected to the Conservatives;[128] in September all three UKIP councillors on Plymouth City Council defected to the Conservatives,[129] as did Alexandra Phillips, who had been UKIP's head of media for three years.[130]
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In 2017, Henry Bolton, a former soldier, was elected leader.[131] In January 2018, UKIP MEP Jonathan Arnott resigned from the party.[132] In December 2017, former UKIP Suffolk County Council 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.[133][134][135][136] In January 2018, UKIP's NEC delivered a vote of no confidence in Bolton; only Bolton voted against the motion.[137] He nevertheless refused to resign.[137] In protest, Margot Parker resigned as deputy leader,[138] as did the party's spokesmen for government, education, immigration, and trade and industry.[139] A few days later, all 17 UKIP members of Thurrock Council left the party and formed Thurrock Independents.[140] 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.[141] When the election occurred in April, Batten stood unopposed and was elected.[142]
Move towards the far right (2018–2019)
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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.[143] MEP James Carver left UKIP to sit as an independent on 28 May 2018, becoming the sixth UKIP MEP to leave since 2014.[144]
Under the leadership of Henry Bolton, party membership was understood to have fallen to around 18,000 by January 2018.[145] During Batten's interim leadership term, the party avoided insolvency after a financial appeal to members.[146] As the new permanent leader, Batten focused the party more on opposing Islam, which he described as a "death cult",[147] sought closer relations with the right-wing activist Tommy Robinson and his followers,[148] and made Muslim-only prisons party policy (which was criticised as "the first step to Muslim concentration camps").[149] UKIP was criticised as an "explicitly far-right party" after they invited Paul Joseph Watson as a spokesman.[150] The party saw its membership rise by 15% in July 2018, following the publication of the Chequers Agreement and allowing three prominent far-right activists to join the party.[151] Previous leader Nigel Farage stated he was "really upset" that Robinson could be allowed into the party and that he believed Gerard Batten was marginalising the party.[152]
Batten's appointment of Robinson as an adviser 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".[153] Former deputy chair Suzanne Evans had left earlier that week after Batten survived a vote of confidence from the party NEC.[154] 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.[155] Another former leader, Paul Nuttall, also left for the same reason.[156] 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 legislation, UKIP led a "Brexit Betrayal" rally in central London fronted by Robinson, alongside prominent far-right groups.[157] By April 2019, of 24 UKIP MEPs elected in the 2014 European Election, only four remained members of UKIP.[158] Ten of these MEPs would later move to Nigel's Farage's new Brexit Party (with the party eventually succeeding UKIP politically), 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 and Mark Meechan.[159] Benjamin had caused controversy by making "inappropriate" comments in 2016 about the rape threats to a female Labour MP Jess Phillips, with the UKIP Swindon branch chair calling for him to be deselected.[160] Videos made by Benjamin in which he used racist terms also caused controversy.[161] In May, the 2019 United Kingdom local elections 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.[162] In the European elections later that month, UKIP received 3.3% of the vote and lost all its remaining seats.[163]
On 2 June 2019, Batten resigned his post as party leader as he had promised if he lost his MEP position.[164] In the 2019 UKIP leadership election, Richard Braine was elected UKIP leader and attempted to appoint Batten as deputy leader.[165] Braine's attempt to appoint Batten as the party's deputy leader was blocked by its 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 with Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the 7/7 terror attackers.[166] Braine later further came under fire when he announced he planned to boycott the September 2019 UKIP Party conference in Newport, after fewer than 450 tickets were sold for the conference. The chairman of UKIP, Kirstan Herriot, told members that Braine had attempted to cancel the conference due to the low turnout and was highly critical of this attempted action.[167]
Internal instability and wipeout (2019–2024)
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.[168] In response, Braine accused the NEC of carrying out a purge of members.[169] All four members were reported to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.[168] 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.[170]
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's Brexit deal. As a result, the sole remaining UKIP member of the Welsh Assembly was Neil Hamilton.[171]
In November 2019, Meechan posted a video to his YouTube channel, announcing that he had left UKIP, citing internal disputes and backstabbing within the party over their leadership as his reason for leaving.[172][non-primary source needed]
On 16 November 2019, NEC member Patricia Mountain was appointed interim leader in preparation for the December general election and the upcoming UKIP leadership election.[173] Only 44 UKIP candidates stood in the December 2019 general election,[174] 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 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 as a "car crash",[175] and there were reports that she was mistaken for the titular character of Catherine Tate's Nan.[176][177] Mountain was unable to name a single seat her party was contending and "accidentally called her party racist".[178] 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 its history.[179] 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.[180]
In January 2020, David Kurten, UKIP's last remaining London Assembly Member, left UKIP to stand as an independent candidate in the 2020 London Assembly election and the 2020 London mayoral election. 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.[181]
In March 2020, according to a tweet by former leader Gerard Batten, the party was reported to be "close to insolvency".[178]
On 25 June 2020, Freddy Vachha was elected unopposed as leader.[182] 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".[183] 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.[182][184] 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.[185] 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.[186]
In the 2021 Senedd election, 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.[187][188] 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. In the Scottish Parliament election, the party received just 3,848 (0.14%) list votes across the whole country despite standing in every region in Scotland.[189] In the 2021 local elections, UKIP lost all the seats it was 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.[188][187][190][191]
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.[192][193] In April 2023, the party removed a longstanding ban of current or former members of far-right groups and parties – including the British National Party (BNP) – from joining the party, and replaced it with a ban of members of several anti-fascist, left-wing, and environmentalist groups.[194] In the May 2023 local elections, it lost all of its remaining council seats leaving the party without representation at any level.[195][196]
At the start of 2024, Hamilton announced that he would retire as party leader that May, leading to a new leadership contest. Bill Etheridge, Lois Perry, and Anne Marie Waters, who had rejoined the party the previous year after having left to form the For Britain Movement, were announced as candidates for the contest,[197] though Waters subsequently withdrew her candidacy for unspecified personal reasons.[198] Lois Perry was elected on 13 May 2024,[199] and announced upon the calling of the 2024 United Kingdom general election later that month that the party would be entering into an electoral alliance with the English Democrats.[200] On 15 June, after just 34 days as leader, Perry resigned due to health issues.[201]
Deputy leader Nick Tenconi took over as leader for the duration of the campaign, which saw the party's vote further decline from its 2019 levels, earning just 6,350 votes nationwide. Of the 26 candidates nominated, all but three of them finished with fewer than 300 votes, with 17 of them finishing in last place in their constituency.[202] Unlike the 2019 election, however, the party did succeed in retaining one deposit by winning 6.3% of the vote in Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge, largely due to Reform UK (as the Brexit Party had renamed itself after the previous election) not nominating a candidate there; the 2,638 votes won by the UKIP candidate Janice Mackay single-handedly accounted for 41.5% of the party's national vote share.[203]
Tenconi's leadership (2024–present)
After Nick Tenconi took leadership of UKIP, he attempted to move closer to the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, and appointed anti-Islam activist and preacher Calvin Robinson as its lead spokesperson,[204] and also entered into talks with anti-Muslim influencer Katie Hopkins.[205] Since becoming leader, Tenconi has made Christian identity politics an important part of UKIP's campaign.[206] Based on this, some people have described Tenconi and UKIP as Christian nationalist.[207][208][209]
A demonstration in Portsmouth in August 2025 was notable for an incident where Tenconi made an arm gesture which was likened by numerous observers to a Nazi salute. Tenconi denied the resemblance, stating that there was "nothing Nazi-esque about the power fist symbol"[210][211]
The party regained a presence in local government when a Reform UK councillor defected to UKIP, in Kent, in September 2025.[212]
UKIP and Tenconi were involved in the 2025 British anti-immigration protests, organising some of the protests under their "Mass Deportations Tour", which has seen them march or rally in cities such as Glasgow, Nottingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, and London and be met with counter-protesters such as Stand Up To Racism.[213][214][215][211][216][217][218][219]
On 21 October, a rally planned by UKIP for 25 October in Whitechapel was banned from occurring within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, an area with a large Muslim population, by the Metropolitan Police. The police said that this action was taken due to a "realistic prospect of serious disorder".[220][221] UKIP's X account had asked attendees to "reclaim Whitechapel from the Islamists".[222] UKIP accused the police of two-tier policing and of caving in to "sectarian violence" as they believed "far-left and Islamist protest groups" were planning disorder, and changed their plans to instead gather at the Brompton Oratory and march to Speakers' Corner.[223] UKIP's marchers were also prohibited from protesting before 1pm or after 4.30pm. A counter-protest organised by Stand Up To Racism and other local groups remained planned for Whitechapel, and the police further banned Stand Up To Racism from gathering in an area of central London, including near the UKIP protest.[224] Four anti-racist counter-protesters were arrested for breaching this.[222] UKIP's march consisted of about 75 people carrying wooden crosses and England fans.[222]
In January 2026, the Electoral Commission published an application by UKIP for a new logo, containing a Templar cross crossed with a spear, and the motto "UKIP: The New Right".[225][226][227] The logo has been criticised for appearing to resemble Nazi symbolism, something the party denies, stating that the symbolism is Christian in origin, with the circle in the centre representing the Eucharist and the spear the Holy Lance.[228][229][230][231] The Electoral Commission rejected the logo, with the rationale that it was "Offensive / Likely to mislead voters as the words spelt out in the emblem are unable to be read".[232]
Ideology and policies
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Right-wing populism and far-right stance
In March 2019, The Guardian reported that "a surge in UKIP membership is shifting the party decisively towards the far right, as long-standing moderates are replaced by entrants attracted by an anti-Islam agenda".[233] Academic political scientists and commentators had previously described UKIP as a right-wing populist party,[17] and as part of Europe's wider radical right.[234] 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",[235] and during its establishment in 1993, UKIP's founders explicitly described it as a populist party.[236] At the time, its "ideological heritage" lay within the right wing of the Conservative Party,[237] and UKIP was influenced by the "Tory populism" of Conservative politicians Margaret Thatcher and Enoch Powell.[238]
The political scientists Amir Abedi and Thomas Carl Lundberg characterised UKIP as an "Anti-Political Establishment" party.[239] The party's rhetoric presents the idea that there is a fundamental divide between the British population and the elite who govern the country.[240] UKIP claims to stand up for ordinary people against this political elite.[241] UKIP politician Bill Etheridge for instance claimed that his party represented "a democratic revolution... the people of Britain rising up and fighting to wrestle power from the elite".[242] Contributing to this anti-establishment message, Farage described the party's supporters as "the People's Army",[243] and he regularly held photo-opportunities and journalistic interviews in a pub, thus cultivating an "erudite everyman" image that contrasted with his past as a commodities trader.[244]
UKIP uses recurring populist rhetoric—for instance by describing its policies as "common sense" and "straight talking"—in order to present itself as a straightforward alternative to the mainstream parties and their supposedly elusive and complex discourse.[241] 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".[245] Farage accused all three parties of being social-democratic in ideology and "virtually indistinguishable from one another on nearly all the key issues".[246] Farage has also accused the Scottish National Party of being "the voice of anti-Englishness", suggesting that elements of the Scottish nationalist movement are "deeply racist, with a total hatred of the English".[247]
Nationalism and British unionism
UKIP has always had the politics of national identity at its core.[249] 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."[250] The party in the 2010s described its position as being that of civic nationalism, and in its 2014 manifesto explicitly rejected ethnic nationalism by encouraging support from Britons of all ethnicities and religions.[251] Rejecting claims that it is racist, both Sked and later Farage described UKIP as a "non-racist, non-sectarian party".[252]
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" 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".[248] It has been suggested that this attitude compromises the party's claim that its form of British nationalism is civic and inclusive.[248]
UKIP considers itself to be a British unionist party,[253] although its support base is centred largely in England.[248] Farage characterised his party's growth as "a very English rebellion",[254] and has described UKIP as "unashamedly patriotic, proud to be who we are as a nation".[255] The political scientist Richard Hayton argued that UKIP's British unionism reflects "Anglo-Britishness", a perspective that blurs the distinction between Britain and England.[237] With Mycock, Hayton argued that in conflating Englishness with Britishness, UKIP exhibited an "inherent Anglocentrism" that negates the distinct culture of the Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish peoples of the United Kingdom.[248] Hayton suggests that UKIP tap into "a vein of nostalgic cultural nationalism" within England,[256] 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.[257]
UKIP has emphasised the need to correct what it perceives as the United Kingdom's imbalance against England resulting from the "West Lothian question" and the Barnett formula.[258] The party has mobilised English nationalist sentiment brought on by English concerns following the devolution within the UK and the rise of Welsh and Scottish nationalisms.[259] The party initially opposed federalism in the UK,[237] criticising the establishment of the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament.[260] However, in September 2011 Farage and the NEC announced their support for the establishment of an English Parliament to accompany the other devolved governments.[258] In its 2015 manifesto, it promised to make St. George's Day and St. David's Day bank holidays in England and Wales, respectively.[261] Similarly, UKIP's 2017 manifesto pledged to declare 23 June British Independence Day and observe it annually as a national holiday.[262]
Euroscepticism, immigration, and foreign policy
UKIP embraces the ideology of hard Euroscepticism,[263] also known as "Eurorejectionism".[264] 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".[265] UKIP characterises the EU as a fundamentally undemocratic institution and stresses the need to regain what it describes as the UK's national sovereignty from the EU.[266] 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.[267] UKIP emphasises Euroscepticism to a far greater extent than any of Western Europe's other main radical right parties,[268] and it was only post-2010 that it began seriously articulating other issues.[269] Hayton nevertheless suggested that Euroscepticism still remains "the lens through which most of its other policy positions are framed and understood".[249]
The party opposed the 2004 enlargement of the European Union into Eastern Europe.[270] UKIP advocated leaving the European Union, stopping payments to the EU, and withdrawing from EU treaties, while maintaining trading ties with other European countries.[271] Initially, UKIP's policy was that, in the event of winning a general election, it would remove the UK from the EU without a referendum on the issue.[117] 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 between the UK and EU.[272][273] UKIP eventually committed to a referendum in its 2015 manifesto.[117] 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.[274] UKIP rejected the description that they were "Europhobes", maintaining that its stance was anti-EU, not anti-European.[274]
UKIP has placed great emphasis on the issue of immigration to the UK,[275] and in 2013 Farage described it as "the biggest single issue facing this party".[276] UKIP attributed 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.[276] On their campaign billboards, UKIP presented EU migrants as a source of crime, as well as a pressure on housing, the welfare state, and the health service.[277] Farage has emphasised not only the economic impact of migration but also the public anxieties regarding the cultural changes brought by immigration.[277] In its 2009 electoral manifesto, UKIP proposed a five-year ban on any migrants coming to the UK.[267] By 2015, it had modified this to the view that the five-year ban should apply only to unskilled migrants.[278] To regulate the arrival of skilled migrants, it called for the UK to adopt a points-based system akin to that employed by Australia.[279] 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.[278] UKIP calls for all immigrants to require compulsory health insurance,[278] and proposes that migrants be barred from claiming any state benefits until they had been resident in the UK for at least five years.[280]
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.[281] 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.[282] However, the party's campaign against immigration has been accused of using racism and xenophobia to win votes.[283] Political scientist David Art suggested that in its campaign to restrict immigration, UKIP had "flirted with xenophobia",[284] while Daniel T. Dye stated that part of the party's appeal was its "sometimes-xenophobic populism",[285] and the journalist Daniel Trilling stated that UKIP tapped into the "anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim populism" that was popular in the late 2000s.[286] 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",[287] 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.[119]
In its 2015 campaign, UKIP called for the foreign aid budget to be cut.[288] It has also advocated a 40% increase in the UK's national defence budget.[276] It opposes British military involvement in conflicts that are not perceived to be in the national interest, specifically rejecting the concept of regime change wars through humanitarian interventionism.[276] For instance, in 2014 it opposed the Cameron government's plans to intervene militarily against the government of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.[289] In 2018, UKIP pledged to work with anti-EU populist group The Movement.[290] The party was known for its pro-Russia stance on foreign policy.[291]
Under Tenconi's leadership, the party has held repeated street demonstrations calling for "mass deportations" and its 2025 manifesto proposes some level of remigration, targeting immigrants who have resided in the UK for up to 25 years.[208]
Economic policy
"So what kind of party is UKIP? Ideologically, the party combines a mix of old-style liberal commitments to free markets, limited government and individual freedom with conservative appeals to national sovereignty and traditional social values."
On economic policy, UKIP shares the main three parties' acceptance of the core principles of a capitalist market economy,[293] and the party is generally at ease with the global free market.[294] 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."[295] They noted for instance that it wanted "free movement of capital" yet wanted to curtail "the free movement of workers across borders".[296]
On economic issues, UKIP's original activist base was largely libertarian, supporting an economically liberal approach.[297] Its economic libertarian views have been influenced by classical liberalism and Thatcherism, with Thatcher representing a key influence on UKIP's thought.[298] 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.[298] Winlow, Hall, and Treadwell suggested that a UKIP government would pursue "hard-core Thatcherism" on economic policy.[296] UKIP presents itself as a libertarian party,[299] and the political scientists David Deacon and Dominic Wring described it as articulating "a potent brand of libertarian populism".[300] However, commentators writing in The Spectator, The Independent, and the New Statesman have all challenged the description of UKIP as libertarian, highlighting its socially conservative and economically protectionist policies as being contrary to a libertarian ethos.[301][302][303]
UKIP would allow businesses to favour British workers over migrants,[304] and would repeal "much of" Britain's racial discrimination law, which was described as "shocking" by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government[305] and viewed as discriminatory by others.[306] However, Farage insisted that his comments regarding his party's policies on these matters had been "wilfully misinterpreted".[304] 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) and former health and social care spokesperson (Louise Bours) stated that they did wish the National Health Service to be included in the trade deal, according to the International Business Times.[307]
Social policy
In The Guardian, commentator Ed Rooksby described UKIP's approach to many social issues as being "traditionalist and socially conservative",[308] while political scientist Stephen Driver has referred to the party's appeals to "traditional social values".[292] UKIP opposed the introduction of same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom.[309] UKIP wants to repeal the Human Rights Act,[310] and remove Britain from both the European Convention on Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).[311][312] 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.[313]
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.[314] 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".[314] 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".[315] Critics of UKIP have claimed that the party's real desire is to dismantle and privatise the NHS,[316] a claim bolstered by the publication of leaked documents showing that in 2013 the UKIP NEC privately spoke positively of NHS privatisation.[317]
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".[318] At the same time he called for Western states to do more to promote their Judeo-Christian heritage,[318] and criticised state multiculturalism for promoting social segregation, discouraging integration, and generating a "tick-box approach" to identity politics.[318] 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.[319]
UKIP is the only major political party in the United Kingdom that does not endorse renewable energy and lower carbon emissions,[320] and its media output regularly promotes climate change denial.[321] Farage and other senior UKIP figures have repeatedly spoken out against the construction of wind farms, deeming them a blot on the rural landscape.[322] UKIP's media present renewable energy as inefficient and unaffordable,[321] and they promote the use of fossil fuels, nuclear energy and fracking.[323] UKIP has announced that it would repeal the Climate Change Act 2008 and has placed an emphasis on protecting the Green Belt.[324]
In its 2015 election manifesto, UKIP promised to teach a chronological understanding of "British history and achievements" in schools,[261] and it calls for the scrapping of sex education for children under 11.[325] UKIP would introduce an option for students to take an apprenticeship qualification instead of four non-core