UK Independence Party

UK Independence Party
Party leader	Patricia Mountain (interim chair)
Secretary General	Jonathan Arnott
Deputy Chairman	Peter Whittle
founding	3rd September 1993
Headquarters	Newton Abbot
Youth organization	Young Independence
Alignment	EU skepticism , right-wing populism , national conservatism , economic liberalism
Colours)	  Purple and yellow
British House of Commons	0/650
British House of Lords	0/795
London Assembly	0/25
Number of members	44,041 (March 23, 2015)
Website	www.ukip.org

The UK Independence Party ( UKIP or Ukip [ ˈjuːkɪp ]; Party for the Independence of the United Kingdom ) is an EU-skeptical and right-wing populist , sometimes also called radical liberal British party. It has twelve regional sub-organizations. Nigel Farage , UKIP Chairman from 2010 to July 2016, made the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union (“ Brexit ”) one of UKIP's main goals. In the Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016, 51.89% of the voters voted for a Brexit. The 2015 British General Election was the only election in which UKIP became the third largest party (it received 12.6% of the vote). It received 1.8% in 2001, 2.2% in 2005, 3.1% in 2010 and 1.8% in 2017. In the 2019 general election , she received 0.1% of the vote and lost her last seat in the lower house.

Under the chairman Gerard Batten , the party has moved more to the right since 2018; it is anti-Islamic and racist .

Party leader

• 1993-1997: Alan Sked
• 1997: Craig Mackinlay (acting)-0000
• 1997-2000: Michael Holmes
• 2000-2002: Jeffrey Titford
• 2002-2006: Roger Knapman
• 2006-2009: Nigel Farage
• 2009-2010: Baron Malcolm Pearson
• 2010: -0000Jeffrey Titford (acting)
• 2010–2016: Nigel Farage
• 2016: Diane James-0000
• 2016: -0000Nigel Farage (acting)
• 2016–2017: Paul Nuttall
• 2017: -0000Steve Crowther (acting)
• 2017-2018: Henry Bolton
• 2018–2019: Gerard Batten (initially provisional)
• 2019: Piers Wauchope (acting)
• 2019: Richard Braine-0000
• 2019: Patricia Mountain (acting)

In the European Parliament

Results of the European elections in the United Kingdom in 2014. In this election, the United Kingdom was divided into twelve constituencies, each with a certain number of members being elected (for example Scotland: six members, London: eight members). Each box stands for one MP. UKIP MP

In 1994 UKIP ran for the first time in the European elections and received one percent of the vote.

In the 1999 European elections , the United Kingdom first used proportional representation in twelve electoral regions. UKIP received 7.0% of the vote and was thus able to achieve three mandates. Were elected Nigel Farage (South East England), Jeffrey Titford (East of England) and Michael Holmes (South West England). They joined the Group for a Europe of Democracies and Differences .

In the European elections in June 2004 UKIP received 16.8% of the vote and twelve seats in the European Parliament . After Ashley Mote (MEP, non-attached) was expelled from the party, the eleven remaining UKIP members joined the Europe-critical group Independence and Democracy (Ind / DEM). Later, the driving force behind the European election campaign, the well-known television talk master Robert Kilroy-Silk , who had served in the House of Commons for the Labor Party in the 1980s , left UKIP and founded the Veritas party in February 2005 .

In the European elections in the United Kingdom in 2009 , UKIP was the second largest party with 16.5%. The 13 elected members of the European Parliament sat in the newly formed Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group, with the exception of Trevor Colman . MPs Nikki Sinclaire (“We-Demand-a-Referendum” Party), Mike Nattrass (“An Independence Party”), Godfrey Bloom , Marta Andreasen and David Campbell Bannerman ( Conservatives ) left UKIP and EFD during the legislature. Roger Helmer , who was elected for the Conservatives , went over to UKIP and EFD. In autumn 2010, UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom founded the European Alliance for Freedom (EAF) with MPs from the Austrian FPÖ and other parties from six countries . The establishment of the EAF was controversial within the party and Bloom finally left the UKIP in 2014.

In the European elections in the United Kingdom in 2014 , UKIP received 28% and became the largest British party with 24 seats. Together with the Italian MoVimento 5 Stelle ( five-star movement ), you founded the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group. In the same year, the majority of UKIP MEPs founded the European party Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe , despite a contrary decision by the party base . In 2016, two MPs also rejoined the EAF. The ADDE was dissolved in 2017 after financial irregularities. The EAF stopped its work at the end of 2017.

Election results at national level

In the general election on May 5, 2005 UKIP received around 2.3% of the vote and was unable to win any of the 646 constituencies. In the 2010 general election , UKIP received 3.1% of the vote and again no seat in the lower house.

UKIP members

year	Party members
2002	9,000
2003	16,000
2004	26,000
2005	19,000
2006	16,000
2007	15,878
2008	14,630
2009	16,252
2010	15,535
2011	17.184
2012	20,409
2013	32,447
2014	36,056
2015	45,000
2016	32,757

In regional elections in England and Wales in May 2013, UKIP was able to win 147 (6.2%) of the 2362 municipal council seats available for election (not all municipalities were elected) in England, which corresponds to a gain of 5.9 percentage points.

UKIP has three members in the House of Lords :

• David Verney, 21st Baron Willoughby de Broke
• Malcolm Pearson, Baron Pearson of Rannoch
• David Stevens, Baron Stevens of Ludgate

On October 9, 2014, UKIP candidate Douglas Carswell won the by-election in the Clacton constituency in southern England with a majority of 12,404 votes. He received almost 60% of the vote and the next-placed Conservative candidate 25%. Carswell was the first UKIP MP to be directly elected to the House of Commons. He had previously been an elected Conservative MP for this constituency, but then announced his move to UKIP and resigned his MP, which made the by-election necessary. In the by-election he ran as a UKIP candidate. A second by-election in the north of England's Heywood and Middleton constituency , a constituency that Labor has always won since 1983, was only narrowly won on the same day by the Labor Party candidate with 617 votes ahead of the UKIP candidate. After the success, UKIP party leader Farage expressed the expectation that more elected members of the lower house could overflow to UKIP.

On November 20, 2014, UKIP candidate Mark Reckless won the Rochester constituency in Kent in a by-election with 16,867 votes (42.1%); the runner-up Kelly Tolhurst of the Conservative Party received 13,947 votes. Reckless, too, had switched from the Conservatives to UKIP and had subsequently given back his parliamentary mandate in order to run again in the by-election. In the 2010 general election, the Conservatives won the constituency by 9,000 votes.

In the general election on May 7, 2015 UKIP received 12.6% of the vote. Because of majority voting, UKIP won only one mandate with Carswell in Clacton . As party leader Farage was not elected in his constituency of South Thanet, he resigned, as announced, on election evening from the party chairmanship. Four days later, however, Farage stated that his resignation had been rejected by the UKIP party executive and that he had decided to continue running UKIP. Some UKIP party officials disagreed and recommended Farage to take a break.

Development after the EU exit referendum

After the Brexit referendum , which was successful from the party perspective , there was a leadership crisis and a programmatic crisis at UKIP. Farage announced his resignation as chairman on July 4, 2016. He was succeeded by MEP Diane James. However, this resigned after 18 days on October 5, 2016, because it lacked “the authority and support in the party”. Suzanne Evans and Paul Nuttall registered for candidacy on October 23, 2016 . Previously, the European Parliament member Steven Woolfe , who had also been traded as a candidate, had publicly declared his rejection after an argument with a party colleague and announced that he would soon leave the party. UKIP is "in a downward spiral". On November 28, 2016, Paul Nuttall was elected as the new chairman with 62.6% of the delegate's vote against his competitors Suzanne Evans and John Rees-Evans . Peter Whittle , MP to the London City Council , became his deputy. Under Nutall, the party suffered a series of defeats. In March 2017, the only MP Carswell left the party. In the 2017 local elections, UKIP lost 145 of 146 seats. In the early general election in 2017 , the party slipped from around 3.88 million votes to around 590,000 votes. Nutall resigned the day after the election.

Steve Crowther took over the acting chairmanship. Several municipal elected officials left the party, for example all three UKIP elected officials in Plymouth City Council switched to Conservatives. Henry Bolton became the new chairman on September 29, 2017 . Two of his opponents in the presidential election left the party to form new parties. Under Bolton, membership fell by 1,000 members per month to 18,000 in January 2018. In January 2018, Bolton came under pressure after it was revealed that he had left his wife for 30-year-old model Jo Marney. Marney's UKIP membership was suspended after a series of text messages from her with racist remarks about Meghan Markle , then fiancé of Prince Harry , were made public. UKIP's National Executive Committee (NEC) passed a no-confidence vote against Bolton on January 21, 2018; On February 17, 2018, party members Bolton expressed suspicion.

MEP Gerard Batten took over the chairmanship on a provisional basis until he was elected as the new chairman on April 14, 2018, with no opposing candidates. Batten turned the party to the right. Among other things, he took three controversial Youtubers into the party. By July 2018, the UKIP had 15% more members. The appointment of Tommy Robinson as Batten's advisor caused a sensation . Robinson is the founder of the far-right and Islamophobic English Defense League . Due to the party's increasing orientation towards an Islamophobic and racist course, a number of elected representatives, including all but three MEPs and ordinary members, left the party, at the beginning of December 2018 even the founder and ex-chairman Farage.

The party suffered a severe blow when the Brexit Party was founded in January 2019, in which former UKIP chairman Nigel Farage soon took on a prominent role. With regard to the exit from the EU, the Brexit Party propagated a program that was practically identical to UKIP in terms of content, but distanced itself from its supposed right-wing extremist tendencies. The opinion polls before the 2019 European elections already announced a crash of UKIP, which was also realized in the election on May 23, 2019. UKIP lost all 24 mandates and fell to 3.2 percent of the vote. In contrast, the competing Brexit Party won 30.5 percent of the vote and 29 seats.

Political program

In addition to leaving the European Union, which should save up to £ 120 billion , the party is committed to various other goals, including:

• the introduction of binding referendums ( referendums ),
• a reform of the UK electoral law in which UKIP prefers the 'Alternative-Vote-Plus' procedure, i. H. a right to vote in which some of the candidates are elected in electoral districts according to a right of precedence , while others are elected via party regional lists, so that overall a proportional representation of the parties results,
• Introduction of an English regional parliament ,
• Introduction of St. George's Day as an English holiday,
• a flat tax of 31% above an exemption limit of 11,500 pounds per year,
• Restrictions on foreign direct investment ,
• the establishment of a free trade area in the Commonwealth of Nations ,
• an expansion of the British military budget by 40% and the British army by 25%,
• a uniform minimum pension,
• a simplification of the UK welfare state and its limitation to people who have lived in the UK for at least five years,
• Investments in nuclear energy and "clean coal power plants" , rejection of wind farms ,
• Cancellation of all state funding for climate protection ,
• an expansion of the UK transport infrastructure and the introduction of a toll for foreign trucks,
• a stop to "uncontrolled immigration to Great Britain",
• drastic tightening of criminal law (abolition of the Human Rights Act 1998 , which implements the European Convention on Human Rights in Great Britain; doubling the number of detention cells, no right to vote for prisoners)
• Prohibition of burqas and niqabs in public buildings,
• Rejection of multiculturalism and promotion of a unified British culture, "Abolition of political correctness ",
• Introduction of a commission to deal with the so-called controversy over global warming ,
• Ban on Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth in British Schools,
• Relaxation of the smoking ban.

Election results in the overview

The following table shows UKIP's election results in the lower house and in the European Parliament elections.

year	choice	Voters	Share of votes	Seats
1994	European elections in 1994	155,487	01.0%	0/87
1997	General election 1997	105,722	00.5%	0/659
1999	European elections 1999	696.057	06.7%	3/87
2001	General election 2001	390,563	01.5%	0/659
2004	2004 European elections	2,650,768	16.1%	12/78
2005	General election 2005	603.298	02.2%	0/646
2009	European elections 2009	2,498,226	16.6%	13/72
2010	General election 2010	919,546	03.1%	0/650
2014	European elections 2014	4,376,635	27.5%	24/73
2015	General election 2015	3,881,129	12.6%	1/650
2017	General election 2017	593,852	1.8%	0/650
2019	European elections 2019	554.463	3.2%	0/73
2019	General election 2019	22,817	0.1%	0/650

literature

• Tim Bale , Alan John Wager: The United Kingdom Independence Party: Insurgency or Splinter? . In: Frank Decker , Bernd Henningsen , Kjetil Jakobsen (eds.): Right-wing populism and right-wing extremism in Europe. The challenge of civil society through old ideologies and new media . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2015, ISBN 978-3-8487-1206-9 , p. 217 ff.
• Nathalie Brack: UKIP au Parlement européen: roles et pratiques parlementaires . In: Maria Gainar, Martial Libera (Ed.): Contre l'Europe? Anti-européisme, euroscepticisme et alter-européisme dans la construction européenne de 1945 à nos jours . Volume 2: Acteurs institutionnels, milieux politiques et société civile (= studies on the history of European integration . Vol. 21). Steiner, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-515-10365-7 , pp. 141 ff.
• Matthew Goodwin: The Rise of the UK Independence Party (UKIP): An attempt to explain . In: Ernst Hillebrand (ed.): Right-wing populism in Europe: Danger for democracy? Dietz, Bonn 2015, ISBN 978-3-8012-0467-9 , p. 31 ff.

Web links

Commons : UK Independence Party  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Party official site (English)
• Official UKIP website of MEPs (English)
• Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 21, 2014: Article on a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation (and on UKIP)

Remarks

1. ↑ For information on this party, see the article Veritas (political party) in the English Wikipedia.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Joanna Whitehead, "Vital skills for a UKIP leader" , The Times , 13 June 2019
2. ↑ Patrick O'Flynn: Twitter message. March 23, 2015, accessed on April 9, 2019 : “UKIP membership has just gone over 44,000. Today stands at 44,041. A new record. " 
3. ^ Wolfram Nordsieck: UNITED KINGDOM . Parties and Elections in Europe .
4. ^ A. Abedi, TC Lundberg: Doomed to Failure? UKIP and the Organizational Challenges Facing Right-Wing Populist Anti-Political Establishment Parties. In: Parliamentary Affairs. 62, 2008, pp. 72-87, doi: 10.1093 / pa / gsn036 .
5. ^ Stefano Fella: Britain: Imperial Legacies, Institutional Constraints and New Political Opportunities' . In: Daniele Albertazzi and Duncan McDonnell (Eds.): Twenty-First Century Populism. The Specter of Western European Democracy . Palgrave, 2008, p. 181-97 . Quote: “[…] this chapter will focus on Britain […] and the radical right populism of UKIP and the BNP. […] Its [the UKIPs] call for tougher law-and-order and immigration and asylum policies, as well as withdrawal from the EU, brought it onto similar ground to the BNP, while representing a more acceptable populist alternative to the mainstream parties for disillusioned voters with right-wing inclinations. "
6. ^ Richard Hayton: Towards the Mainstream? UKIP and the 2009 Elections to the European Parliament . In: Politics . tape 30 , no. 1 , February 2010, doi : 10.1111 / j.1467-9256.2009.01365.x .
7. ^ Peter John and Helen Margetts, The Latent Support for the Extreme Right in British Politics . In: West European Politics . tape 32 , no. 3 , April 2009, doi : 10.1080 / 01402380902779063 .
8. ↑ Andreas Ladner et al .: The political positioning of the European parties in comparison . In: Institut de hautes études en administration publique (ed.): Chaire Administration suisse et politiques institutionalelles . 2010, ISBN 978-2-940390-28-1 . , Page 54
9. ^ Werner T. Bauer: Right-wing extremists and right-wing populist parties in Europe . Ed .: Austrian Society for Policy Advice and Policy Development - ÖGPP. October 2012.
10. ↑ Farage leaves UKIP . Tagesschau.de, December 5, 2018.
11. ↑ UKIP aiming to be 'radical, populist' party - Gerard Batten . BBC News, December 5, 2018.
12. ↑ https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/behead-the-political-class-ukip-and-tommy-robinson-prepare-for-euro-elections-paris-gourtsoyannis-1-4902112
13. ↑ spiegel.de: girlfriend insulted Meghan Markle - Ukip boss resigns
14. ↑ Batten is the new leader of the UKIP party. ORF , April 15, 2018, accessed on the same day
15. ↑ Patrick Wintour, Nicholas Watt: Ukip wins European elections with ease to set off political earthquake. In: The Guardian . May 26, 2014, accessed December 9, 2018 . 
16. ↑ Tom McTague: Ukip fury as Farage forms EU political party to secure £ 1.5m of taxpayers' cash from Brussels. In: Daily Mail. December 16, 2014, accessed December 9, 2018 . 
17. ↑ Alex Hunt: UKIP: The story of the UK Independence Party's rise. BBC News, October 10, 2014, accessed October 12, 2014 . 
18. ↑ ^{a b c} Paul Nuttall elected as UKIP leader , BBC News , November 28, 2016
19. ↑ Jürgen Krönig: The success of the euro-skeptics puts Cameron in trouble. In: The time . May 3, 2013, accessed May 3, 2013 . 
20. ↑ Vote 2013: English council results. BBC News, accessed May 3, 2013 . 
21. ↑ UKIP gains first elected MP with Clacton win. BBC News, October 10, 2014, accessed October 10, 2014 . 
22. ^ Rochester: Farage looks to more UKIP gains after success. BBC News, November 21, 2014, accessed November 21, 2014 . 
23. ↑ Nigel Farage from Ukip: Head of the right-wing Eurosceptics resigns. In: Spiegel Online . May 8, 2015, accessed May 8, 2015 . 
24. ↑ Farage stays as UKIP leader after resignation rejected. BBC News, May 11, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
25. ↑ UKIP's Nigel Farage rules out quitting as leader. BBC News, May 15, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
26. ↑ Great Britain: Nigel Farage resigns as Ukip boss after Brexit vote at Spiegel Online , July 4, 2016 (accessed July 4, 2016).
27. ↑ UKIP leader Diane James standing down after 18 days. BBC News, October 5, 2016, accessed October 23, 2016 . 
28. ^ Suzanne Evans and Paul Nuttall run for UKIP leadership. BBC News, October 23, 2016, accessed October 23, 2016 . 
29. ↑ Local elections 2017: The results mapped . May 5, 2017 ( bbc.com [accessed April 9, 2019]).
30. ↑ Jessica Elgot, Peter Walker, Josh Halliday: Paul Nuttall stands down as Ukip leader after disastrous election result . In: The Guardian . June 9, 2017, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed April 9, 2019]).
31. ^ Miles O'Leary: All three of Plymouth's Ukip councillors have just quit the party. September 10, 2017, accessed April 9, 2019 . 
32. ^ Rees-Evans quits UKIP to form new party . October 3, 2017 (English, bbc.com [accessed April 9, 2019]).
33. ↑ Anti-Islam Ukipper Anne Marie Waters to set up new political party. Yahoo News UK, October 6, 2017, accessed April 9, 2019 . 
34. ↑ Maya Oppenheim: Ukip gains 500 new members since allowing prominent far-right activists to join party. June 26, 2018, accessed April 9, 2019 . 
35. ↑ Peter Walker: Ukip membership surges 15% in a month . In: The Guardian . August 2, 2018, ISSN  0261-3077 (English, theguardian.com [accessed April 9, 2019]).
36. ↑ James Morris: Nigel Farage quits Ukip over Tommy Robinson appointment. December 4, 2018, accessed April 9, 2019 . 
37. ^ Greg Heffer: Ex-UKIP leader Paul Nuttall quits party over Tommy Robinson role. December 7, 2018, accessed April 9, 2019 . 
38. ↑ The UK's European elections 2019. BBC News, May 27, 2019, accessed May 27, 2019 . 
39. ↑ See UKIP National Manifesto ( Memento of April 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) from 2010 on the UKIP homepage.
40. ↑ Ukip answers questions about its science policy , in: The Guardian , April 27, 2010