UK Independence Party

UK Independence Party
File:UKIP logo.png
Leader	Lord Pearson of Rannoch
Chairman	Paul Nuttall
Founded	1993
Headquarters	PO Box 408 Newton Abbot TQ12 9BG
Ideology	Populism, Euroscepticism, Conservatism, National conservatism
Political position	Right-Wing
European affiliation	None
European Parliament group	Europe of Freedom and Democracy
International affiliation	None
Colours	Purple and Yellow
House of Lords	2 / 724
European Parliament	13 / 74
Local government	21 / 21,871
Website
http://www.ukip.org/
Politics of the United Kingdom Political parties Elections

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) (Template:PronEng, YOO-kip) is a political party in the United Kingdom which adheres to a right-wing ideology that has been identified as being eurosceptic, populist and conservative. Its primary policy is the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union.

UKIP currently holds twelve seats in the European Parliament and two in the House of Lords (the latter due to the defection of Conservative peers). It also has around 100 local councillors on principal authorities, town and parish councils. It reported a membership of 16,300 on 27 November 2009.

In the 2009 European elections, UKIP came second in the UK, beating the governing Labour Party with the share of the vote increasing by 0.4%, to 16.5%, to give it a total of thirteen seats in the European Parliament. At the UK General Election, 2010, the party polled 3.1% of the vote (an increase of 0.9% on the previous general election), but gained no seats.

UKIP's current leader is Lord Pearson of Rannoch, who was elected as leader on 27 November 2009. Lord Monckton, a former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, became joint Deputy Leader on 3 June 2010 and shares the role with David Campbell Bannerman, who remains the head of policy of the party.

History

Founding and early years

UKIP was founded in 1993 by Alan Sked and other members of the all-party Anti-Federalist League. Its primary objective was withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The new party attracted some members of the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party, which was split on the European question after the pound was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 and the struggle over ratification of the Maastricht Treaty. UKIP candidates stood in the 1997 general election, but were overshadowed by James Goldsmith's Referendum Party.

After the election, Sked resigned the leadership and left the party, which was, he said, 'doomed to remain on the political fringes'. However, Goldsmith died soon after the election and his Referendum Party was dissolved, with a resulting influx of new UKIP supporters. The leadership election was won by millionaire businessman Michael Holmes, and in the 1999 elections to the European Parliament UKIP gained three seats and 7% of the vote. In that election, Nigel Farage (South East England), Jeffrey Titford (East of England), and Michael Holmes (South West England) were elected.

Over the following months there was a power struggle between the leader, Michael Holmes, and the party's National Executive Committee (NEC). This was partly due to Holmes making a speech perceived as calling for greater powers for the European Parliament against the European Commission. Ordinary party members forced the resignation of both Holmes and the entire NEC and Jeffrey Titford was subsequently elected leader. Holmes resigned from the party itself in March 2000. There was a legal battle when he tried to continue as an independent MEP until resigning from the European Parliament in December 2002, when he was replaced by Graham Booth, the second candidate on the UKIP list in South West England.

UKIP put up candidates in more than 420 seats in the 2001 general election, attaining 1.5% of the vote and failing to win any representation at Westminster. It also failed to break through in the elections to the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly, despite those elections being held under proportional representation. In 2002 Titford stood down as party leader, but continued to sit as a UKIP MEP. He was replaced as leader by Roger Knapman.

Robert Kilroy-Silk

In late 2004, reports in the mainstream UK press speculated on if or when former Labour Party MP and chat-show host Robert Kilroy-Silk would take control of the party. These reports were heightened by Kilroy-Silk's speech at the UKIP party conference in Bristol on 2 October 2004, in which he called for the Conservative Party to be "killed off" (following UKIP's forcing the Conservatives into fourth place in Hartlepool).

Interviewed by Channel 4 television, Kilroy-Silk did not deny having ambitions to lead the party, but stressed that Roger Knapman would lead it into the next general election. However, the next day, on Breakfast with Frost, he criticised Knapman's leadership. After further disagreement with the leadership Kilroy-Silk resigned the UKIP whip in the European Parliament on 27 October 2004. Initially he remained a member, while seeking a bid for the party leadership. However, this was not successful, and Kilroy-Silk resigned completely from UKIP on 20 January 2005, calling it a "joke". Two weeks later, he founded his own party, Veritas, taking several UKIP members, including both London Assembly members, with him. Kilroy-Silk has subsequently resigned from Veritas.

Nigel Farage expenses disclosure

In May 2009, the Guardian newspaper reported that UKIP's leader, Nigel Farage had said in a speech to the Foreign Press Association that over ten years as a member of the European Parliament he used nearly £2 million of taxpayers' money in expenses and allowances, on top of his £64,000 a year salary.

Former Europe Minister Denis MacShane said this showed that Farage was "happy to line his pockets with gold." Farage called this a "misrepresentation" but welcomed the focus on the issue of MEP expenses, claiming that "Over a five year term each and every one of Britain's 78 MEPs gets about £1 million. It is used to employ administrative staff, run their offices and to travel back and forth between their home, Brussels and Strasbourg."

2009 European Election campaign

On 28 March 2009, the Conservative Party's biggest-ever donor Stuart Wheeler donated £100,000 to UKIP after criticising David Cameron's stance towards the Lisbon treaty and the European Union. He said, "if they kick me out I will understand. I will be very sorry about it, but it won't alter my stance." The following day, 29 March, he was expelled from the Conservative Party.

On 15 May 2009, a YouGov poll conducted for The Sun newspaper showed UKIP as having 15% of the vote for the impending European Elections, only 5% behind the Labour Party. The surge in support was accredited by The Sun to public despair stemming from the MPs' expenses crisis.

Nikki Sinclaire and the EFD controversy

In January 2010, Nikki Sinclaire MEP resigned from the Europe of Freedom and Democracy grouping in the European Parliament, to which UKIP belongs, stating that "the group contains parties who have a variety of extremist views which includes racism, anti-Semitism and violence". She also cited a deterioration of her relationship with Nigel Farage, who is co-leader of the EFD group. Sinclaire was subsequently expelled from UKIP.

General election 2010

UKIP fielded 572 candidates in the 2010 general election, with their main target being Buckingham, where Nigel Farage stood against Speaker John Bercow - an imperfectly observed convention states that the main parties do not normally nominate candidates against an incumbent Speaker. UKIP aimed for a hung parliament in which they hoped the Liberal Democrats would drive through proportional representation as a key demand to form a coalition government. Lord Pearson demanded some candidates stand down in favour of eurosceptic Conservatives and Labour MPs, however, some refused to do so. This did not stop Lord Pearson from campaigning on behalf of the Conservative candidates citing that he was 'putting country before party'. These decisions drew some criticism from within the party from the likes of Michael Heaver of Young Independence, among others.

On the morning of polling day, Nigel Farage was injured when a light aircraft he was a passenger in crashed near Brackley, Northamptonshire.

In the election itself the party polled 3.1% of the vote (917,832 votes), but took no seats. This made it the party with the largest percentage of the popular vote to win no seats in the election (In a fully proportional system, 3.1% of 649 seats would be just over 20 seats).

In their key target, despite Lord Tebbit and numerous senior Conservatives voicing support for Farage and a Conservative Home online survey put Farage on 64% and Bercow on 25%, Nigel Farage obtained just 17.4% of the vote in Buckingham - placing him third behind Bercow and independent John Stevens (Buckinghamshire Campaign for Democracy). UKIP also achieved third place in three other constituencies: North Cornwall, North Devon and Torridge and West Devon.

UKIP lost 5 sitting councillors in the UK local elections in May 2010. The only one of those to have been previously elected as a UKIP councillor was Steve Allison, in Hartlepool.

Policies

Although UKIP's original raison d'être was withdrawal from the European Union it was felt that the public perception of the party as a single-issue party - despite issuing a full manifesto - was damaging electoral progress and Nigel Farage, on becoming leader, started a wide-ranging policy review. His stated aim being 'the development of the party into broadly standing for traditional conservative and libertarian values'. Malcolm Pearson, on becoming leader, built upon Farage's policy review, his fundamental propositions being the introduction of Swiss style referendums and direct democracy at local and national levels, and the opposition to Islamic fundamentalism.

UKIP has subsequently produced detailed policy documents on taxation and education.

British nationality

The UKIP asserts that it believes in civic nationalism and rejects "blood and soil" ethnic nationalism. It is said to believe that "Britishness" can be defined in terms of belief in democracy, fair play and freedom. The UKIP also states that it will "enthusiastically support teaching Gaelic [sic] languages and histories in England, Scotland, [Northern] Ireland, Wales and Cornwall, and support local and area heritage across the UK."

The UKIP opposes the takeover of major British companies such as the recent takeover of Cadbury's by Kraft and would create a new parliamentary committee that would be given powers to block the sale or merger of companies and to attach conditions, including requiring a UK Government “Golden Share”.

UKIP would replace the May Day bank holiday in England with a St George’s Day bank holiday. It would also restore imperial measures. All media, businesses, schools and colleges would be required to use imperial alongside metric measurements, while still keeping metric for use alongside imperial measurements.

Direct democracy and referendums

UKIP would introduce direct democracy whereby if a fixed proportion of the electorate depending on each constituency (normally 5 per cent) signs a petition demanding a referendum on any major issue which is of concern to them, it shall be granted a referendum within three months for local petitions and six months for national petitions.

Economic policies

UKIP's economic stance is based on what it claims to be the need for much lower taxation in order to compete internationally. It proposes combining income tax and national insurance into a single flat tax at 31 per cent, which it claims would take 4.5 million lower-paid workers out of the income tax system completely. UKIP also proposes cuts in corporation taxes and the abolition of inheritance taxes.

The party also advocates closer economic ties with the Commonwealth of Nations.

Education policy

UKIP's policy paper on education says it regards the aim of education as being to bring out the talents and abilities of every child. The party wants to give schools more freedom to determine their own direction so parents can have a more meaningful choice. It supports education vouchers for parents; would reform the national curriculum to give schools a greater say over subjects taught; and would abolish nationwide testing of children before the age of 11. UKIP supports grammar schools equally with the other kinds of state-funded schools. Lord Pearson, on becoming leader, would go onto propose the introduction of a school voucher system.

UKIP has condemned the Badman Review, which recommends greater regulation of home educators in England, and it supports home education as a parental choice.

Energy and environmental policies

UKIP favours an expansion of nuclear power for reasons of energy security. UKIP is sceptical of anthropogenic global warming, and suggests instead that the current warming is similar to that of previous geological cycles, unless further evidence is provided to prove it is manmade. It does not believe large-scale cuts of carbon emissions are necessary, arguing that technological innovation is already moving towards decarbonisation, and also argues that plans to invest in wind power are uneconomic.

Animal welfare

UKIP would introduce labelling schemes to imports indicating the methods of production, e.g., battery cages, sow tethers, veal crates, whilst maintaining current levels of British animal welfare. They would use advertising campaigns to educate the consumer about the labelling schemes.

UKIP would look at the present system of import control to find out how it can be strengthened using expert opinion. UKIP state that they will rely on British veterinary and scientific advice in the event of any disease outbreaks including Foot-and-Mouth Disease and Bovine TB.

GM foods

UKIP is opposed to the production of GM crops in Britain, yet open to scientific research, advice and consumer demand. UKIP would also require that all imported GM produce be labelled as 'genetically modified'.

Identity cards & civil liberties

UKIP are against the Identity Cards Act 2006. In December 2004, UKIP affiliated to the anti-ID card campaign, No2ID. Concern for civil liberties also led UKIP to oppose the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, which gives additional powers to the UK Home Secretary in broadly defined "emergency situations". UKIP's Jeffrey Titford MEP condemned the bill as "totalitarian".

Local Government

UKIP seeks to give more powers to local authorities and scrap unelected regional bodies. They would restore the county as a key government with unitaries only where local people prefer them.

UKIP would use city-wide authorities to provide continuity and strategic direction, with counties cooperating on area-wide strategies, where necessary.

Certain powers which have been assumed by regional bodies, such as over fire and emergency services, will be give to counties/unitaries. However, area-wide co-operation across large scale planning, transport and development will be encouraged.

UKIP in the European Parliament

Grouping in the European parliament

In 1999, three UKIP members were elected to the European Parliament. Together with eurosceptics from other countries, they formed a grouping called Europe of Democracies and Diversities (EDD).

In 2004, 37 MEPs from the UK, Poland, Denmark and Sweden founded a new European Parliament group called Independence and Democracy from the old Europe of Democracies and Diversities group. However, following the European Parliament election, 2009, where Eurosceptic parties from Denmark, Sweden and elsewhere lost all representation, the ID group was dissolved.

UKIP have now formed a new right-wing grouping called Europe of Freedom and Democracy comprising of nationalist, eurosceptic, conservative and other political factions. This group is more right wing than the older Independence and Democracy grouping.

Current representatives

UKIP now has twelve MEPs in the European Parliament. They are:

East Midlands	Derek Clark
East of England	David Campbell-Bannerman, Stuart Agnew
London	Gerard Batten
North West England	Paul Nuttall
South East England	Nigel Farage, Marta Andreasen
South West England	Trevor Colman, Earl of Dartmouth
Wales	John Bufton
West Midlands	Mike Nattrass
Yorkshire and the Humber	Godfrey Bloom

Relationship with other parties

Conservatives

Many prominent members of UKIP are former members of the Conservative Party, such as former UKIP leader Roger Knapman - other former Conservative MPs include Jonathan Aitken, Sir Richard Body, Michael Brotherton, John Browne and Christopher Gill. The late Piers Merchant stood as a candidate for UKIP in the 2004 European Elections and was a party official during the last 5 years of his life.

A recent ConservativeHome survey revealed that 43% of surveyed members of the Conservative Party felt that UKIP was the closest party to their views (apart from the Conservative Party itself), with 66% either supporting or sympathising with the Better Off Out campaign. Six Conservative MPs have signed the Better Off Out petition.

On 9 January 2007, two former Conservative peers defected from the Conservative Party to UKIP. Lords Pearson and Willoughby de Broke joined UKIP as they felt the Conservative Party was not producing policy to support their beliefs. They had previously had the Conservative whip withdrawn when they had encouraged voters to support UKIP. Other high-profile Conservatives have defected to UKIP, but this was the first example of sitting parliamentarians doing so. On 20 January 2007 the Earl of Dartmouth, also a former Conservative member of the House of Lords, defected. On the 19th of December 2009 Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, a former Conservative and advisor to Margaret Thatcher defected to UKIP, Richard Thomas Orlando Bridgeman, 7th Earl of Bradford, also a former Conservative stood for UKIP in 2001 for the UK Parliament seat of Stafford and also in 2004 for the European Elections.

On 22 April 2008 Conservative MP Bob Spink defected to UKIP, giving the party its first representative in the House of Commons. Spink didn't actually join from the Conservatives as he had been expelled from the party a few weeks earlier due to a dispute with his local party branch.

Labour

In May 2009, Independent Labour peer Lord Stoddart of Swindon (former MP for Swindon), pledged to vote UKIP and encouraged voters to do the same. He stated "The only way to save our country from complete absorption into a single centralised European state is to leave the EU and, since not one of the major political parties supports this policy, UKIP is the only realistic alternative."

British National Party

Buster Mottram, a UKIP member who claimed to represent the BNP, made an offer of a pact between the BNP and UKIP for the 2009 Euro elections after turning up uninvited at a UKIP executive meeting. According to the UKIP website, Mottram "had to be escorted out by uniformed police officers." UKIP leader Nigel Farage told the BBC that there had been an attempt "over many months" to infiltrate and try to "demoralise" UKIP members into thinking there was no future without a deal with the BNP. The BNP confirmed to the BBC that it was behind the approach but later stated that Buster Mottram had never been a member of the BNP and claimed that the pact was his idea alone.

Other political parties

Aidan Rankin, co-author of the party's 2001 manifesto, was once involved with the Third Way. Additionally, two of the party's former leaders (Alan Sked and Michael Holmes) were former members of the Liberal Party, and a number of UKIP's district councillors have been defectors from the Liberal Democrats and in particular in the last year from the Conservatives.

Two independent councillors, Adam Brown and Neil Greer, joined UKIP in July 2009

Ethnic minority members of UKIP

The first ethnic-minority candidate to represent UKIP in a parliamentary by-election was Ashwinkumar Tanna, a pharmacist who had previously been an independent candidate for Mayor of London. He represented UKIP in the Tottenham by-election, 2000; his campaign called for British withdrawal from the EU and fairer treatment for immigrants.

Former TV chef Rustie Lee stood as a UKIP candidate in the 2005 general election and also appeared in the party's election broadcast that year. However, the most senior black member of the UKIP leadership so far has been Delroy Young, another general election candidate, who was elected to the party's NEC in 2006 (coming 2nd out of 46 candidates).

UKIP's only Muslim local councillor to date was Mohammed Yaqub, originally elected as a Conservative to Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council. He and a colleague defected to UKIP in 2004 but were defeated in their re-election bids a few months later.

In the 2009 European Parliament Elections, there were a number of ethnic minority candidates running for UKIP across the UK, including Rustie Lee and Deva Kumarasiri, a Sri Lankan postmaster who hit the headlines when he refused to serve customers who refused to learn English. Marta Andreasen, an Argentine-born Spanish accountant was elected to the European Parliament as an MEP for the South East region.

Among the ethnic minority candidates who ran for UKIP in the 2010 General Election was Abhijit Pandya, a Londoner and law tutor at the LSE who defected from the Conservatives to stand as a candidate in Harrow East. Pandya made headlines in 2009 as Chairman of the Birkenhead Society, which successfully overturned the Labour Government's ban on the Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders entering the UK after he criticised Islam.

Leaders of UKIP since 1993

• Dr. Alan Sked 1993–1997
• Craig Mackinlay 1997 (acting leader)
• Michael Holmes 1997–2000 (MEP from 1999 on)
• Jeffrey Titford, MEP 2000–2002
• Roger Knapman 2002–2006 (MEP from 2004 on)
• Nigel Farage, MEP 2006–2009
• Lord Pearson of Rannoch 2009-

See also

• United Kingdom Independence Party election results
• Euroscepticism
• Bruges Group

External links

• Official UKIP homepage
• UKIP in the European Parliament - UKIP MEPs' website
• UKIP's MEPs explain their aims
• Full history of UKIP : "Hard Pounding, The Story of the UK Independence Party"