The Whigs were a political faction and then a political party in the parliaments of England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and 1850s, they contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute monarchy. The Whigs played a central role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and were the standing enemies of the Stuart kings and pretenders, who were Roman Catholic. The Whigs took full control of the government in 1715, and remained totally dominant until King George III, coming to the throne in 1760, allowed Tories back in. The "Whig Supremacy" (1715–1760) was enabled by the Hanoverian succession of George I in 1714 and the failed Jacobite rising of 1715 by Tory rebels. The Whigs thoroughly purged the Tories from all major positions in government, the army, the Church of England, the legal profession and local officials. The major leader of the Whigs in this period was Robert Walpole, who maintained control of the government in the period 1721–1742; his protégé was Henry Pelham (1743–1754).

Whig or Whigs may refer to:

Parties and factions

In the British Isles

In the United States

The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States. Three Presidents were current members of the Party. Along with the rival Democratic Party, it was central to the Second Party System from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s. It originally formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson (in office 1829–37) and his Democratic Party. In particular, the Whigs supported the supremacy of Congress over the Presidency and favored a program of modernization, banking and economic protectionism to stimulate manufacturing. It appealed to entrepreneurs and planters, but had little appeal to farmers or unskilled workers. It included many active Protestants, and voiced a moralistic opposition to the Jacksonian Indian removal policies. The "Whig" name was chosen to echo the American Whigs of 1776, who fought for independence. "Whig" meant opposing tyranny. Historian Frank Towers has specified a deep ideological divide:

The Whig Party is a political party in England. The party is intended to be a revival of the Whigs that existed in the United Kingdom from 1678 to 1868. The party is led by Waleed Ghani, who launched it in October 2014. It is based on the ideology of the former Whigs, Whiggism.

History

Waleed Ghani and his fiancée, Felicity Anscomb, applied to register the Whig Party with the Electoral Commission on 27 May 2014. The Whig Party was officially registered with the Electoral Commission on 15 September 2014. The Electoral Commission lists Waleed Ghani as its Leader and Nominating Officer, and Felicity Anscomb as its Treasurer. Ghani founded the Party with the intention of filling a vacuum he saw in British politics. He immediately faced criticism from Jesse Norman, a Conservative Member of Parliament who in 2013 published a biography of the famous Whig politician Edmund Burke.

On 9 December 2014, Ghani was interviewed by Jo Coburn on the BBC's Daily Politics. Ghani has also received support from American Whigs. The Party was founded without any policies, but instead a group of values such as human rights, love of country, and diversity, for which they use the Swedish word mångfald (meaning "diversity", "variety" or "multitude"). In early 2015, the Whig Party formed an agreement with Something New that meant both parties would cross endorse candidates and they would not stand opposing candidates in the same seats.