Brexit party

Brexit Party Brexit Party
Party leader	Richard Tice
Party leader	Nigel Farage
Emergence	Spin-off from UKIP
founding	20th January 2019
Place of foundation	London
Headquarters	83 Victoria Street London SW1 0HWK
Alignment	Pro-Brexit EU skepticism Right-wing populism
Colours)	Turquoise , white
British House of Commons	0/650
British House of Lords	0/795
Welsh Parliament	3/60
Website	thebrexitparty.org

The Brexit Party (German: "Brexit Party") is a political party in the United Kingdom . Right-wing politicians founded it on January 20, 2019 after it became clear that the UK's exit from the EU (“Brexit”) would be delayed.

Founding the party

Party leader Nigel Farage

In 2018 there was a shift to the right in the UK Independence Party . Among other things, UKIP chairman Gerard Batten , who has been in office since February of that year, appointed Tommy Robinson , the founder and former head of the Islamophobic English Defense League , as his advisor in November 2018 . As a result, former UKIP leaders left the party. Catherine Blaiklock founded the Brexit Party in January 2019 with the knowledge and support of Nigel Farage . A short time later, Farage joined the party. He declared that it was now a matter of “the people against the politicians” having to fight. Together with Farage, seven other members of the European Parliament converted to the Brexit party. The other MPs are Tim Mark Aker , Jonathan Bullock , David Coburn , Nathan Gill , Julia Reid and Bill Etheridge , who was previously a member of the Libertarian Party for a few months . A short time later, former UKIP Chairs Paul Nuttall and Diane James followed suit .

After Blaiklock's anti-Islamic statements became public, she resigned on March 20, 2019. Farage then became the leader of the party.

Funding the party

Since its inception, the party has taken on paying supporters and financed itself through donations. According to its chairman, Nigel Farage, it is mainly about small donations. In June 2019, the party came into the focus of the supervisory authority (Electoral Commission), which reminded the traceability of all donations. According to UK newspaper The Guardian, the party should account for a total of £ 2.5 million of unexplained origin. A violation of the party donation guidelines (according to which donations of over £ 500 must be traceable) could not be proven to the Brexit party. The politician Alyn Smith (member of the Scottish National Party) had to officially apologize for his allegation made on Sky News in May 2019 that the Brexit party was a front-line party for money laundering. Suspicions that businessman Arron Banks is behind the Brexit party are disputed by party founder Farage. In July 2019, the European Parliament opened an investigation into the party on allegations of illegal donations from banks to Farage of almost half a million pounds.

Political significance and election results

In a first poll on April 10, 2019, the Brexit party came to 10% of a possible British participation in the 2019 European elections . After a decision to postpone Brexit by six months, the party rose to 27% in a poll for the EP election in mid-April 2019. According to an online survey carried out from May 8 to 10, the Brexit party already achieved 34%, which is more support than Labor (21%) and Tories (11%) combined. In the British European elections on May 23, 2019 , the Brexit party received 30.5% of the vote, making it the strongest force in the country. Candidates also included former critics from Nigel Farage and UKIP.

With a total of 29 MPs, the Brexit party was the largest single party in the EU Parliament until January 31, 2020.

The former 23 MEPs until January 31, 2020 were:

Surname	Constituency	First choice	notes
David Bull	North West England	23 May 2019	former Conservative parliamentary candidate
Jonathan Bullock	East Midlands	28th July 2017	former UKIP MP; former Conservative parliamentary candidate
Martin Daubney	West Midlands	23 May 2019
Nigel Farage	South East England	June 10, 1999	Leader of the party; former UKIP MP
Claire Fox	North West England	23 May 2019	former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party
Nathan Gill	Wales	July 1, 2014	former UKIP MP
James Glancy	South West England	23 May 2019
Benyamin Habib	London	23 May 2019
Michael Heaver	East of England	23 May 2019
Christina Jordan	South West England	23 May 2019
Rupert Lowe	West Midlands	23 May 2019	former referendum party candidate
Belinda De Camborne Lucy	South East England	23 May 2019
Brian Monteith	North East England	23 May 2019
June Mummery	East of England	23 May 2019
Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen	North West England	23 May 2019
Matthew Patten	East Midlands	23 May 2019
Alexandra Lesley Phillips	South East England	23 May 2019	former UKIP head of media
Jake Pugh	Yorkshire and the Humber	23 May 2019
Robert Rowland	South East England	23 May 2019
John Tennant	North East England	23 May 2019	former UKIP councilor, current leader of the Independent Union Party
Richard Tice	East of England	23 May 2019
James Wells	Wales	23 May 2019
Ann Widdecombe	South West England	23 May 2019	former Conservative member of parliament and government

Former members (were then independent MEPs until January 31, 2020):

Surname	Constituency	First choice	notes
Lance Forman	London	23 May 2019
Lucy Harris	Yorkshire and the Humber	23 May 2019
Andrew England Kerr	West Midlands	23 May 2019
John Longworth	Yorkshire and the Humber	23 May 2019
Annunziata Rees-Mogg	East Midlands	23 May 2019	former parliamentary candidate
Louis Stedman-Bryce	Scotland	23 May 2019

The Brexit Party did not take part in the local elections in England and Northern Ireland in May 2019. In the by-election to the House of Commons in the Peterborough constituency on June 6, 2019, however, a candidate from the Brexit Party ran. He narrowly missed entry into parliament. Contrary to earlier announcements, the party only ran for the parliamentary elections in December 2019 in constituencies that had not been won by candidates from the Conservative Party two years earlier . The aim was to weaken the opposition in the form of the Labor Party and the Liberal Democrats . The party eventually got 2.0% of the vote and no parliamentary seats.

Election results in the overview

The following table shows the election results of the Brexit Party in the lower house and in the elections to the European Parliament.

year	choice	Voters	Share of votes	Seats
2019	European elections 2019	5,248,533	30.52%	29/73
2019	General election 2019	642.323	2.0%	0/650

Web links

• Official party site
• Official Facebook page
• Official Twitter Page

Individual evidence

1. ^ Right-wing populist parties are polling well in Britain . In: The Economist , April 15, 2019.
2. ↑ The new Ukip? Nigel Farage offers 'full support' for another Brexit party . independent.ie , March 26, 2019.
3. ^ "No more Mr Nice Guy": Nigel Farage fumes over Brexit . sky.com , March 23, 2019.
4. ↑ Alex Wickham, Mark Di Stefano: The Founder Of Nigel Farage's New Brexit Party Has A History Of Anti-Muslim Comments . buzzfeed.com , February 11, 2019.
5. ↑ Syal Rajeev: Brexit party told to check all donations for possible illegal funding. In: The Guardian. June 18, 2019, accessed August 9, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Jens Berger: Great Britain - representative democracy eats its children , nachdenkseiten.de , May 17, 2019.
7. ^ Crisp James: Nigel Farage claims EU investigation into undeclared gifts from Brexiteer Arron Banks is 'over and dealt with'. The Telegraph, July 3, 2019, accessed September 8, 2019 . 
8. ^ Joe Curtis: Poll: Voters would punish Tories for Brexit delay at European parliamentary elections . cityam.com, April 10, 2019.
9. ↑ Peter Mühlbauer: Brexit Party shoots first in the survey . telepolis , April 18, 2019.
10. ↑ Brexit party may get more EU election votes than Tories and Labor combined - poll , theguardian.com , May 11, 2019.
11. ↑ Fox Claire: Why as a lifelong leftie I've joined Team Nigel: CLAIRE FOX explains her reasons for standing as a European election candidate in The Brexit Party. In: Mail Online. Daily Mail, April 24, 2019, accessed August 9, 2019 . 
12. ↑ British local elections: clap for May's party over Brexit? , brf.be , May 2, 2019.
13. ↑ Kate Devlin: Farage's Brexit party eyes seat of disgraced ex-Labor MP, Fiona Onasanya . thetimes.co.uk , April 30, 2019.
14. ↑ Brexit party missed entry into British parliament . Spiegel Online , June 7, 2019.