UK Independence Party

UK Independence Party
Abbreviation	UKIP
Leader	Nick Tenconi (interim leader)
Deputy Leader	Vacant
Chairman	Ben Walker
Deputy Chair	Vacant
General Secretary	Donald Mackay
Founder	Alan Sked
Founded	3 September 1993; 31 years ago (1993-09-03)
Preceded by	Anti-Federalist League
Headquarters	Henleaze Business Centre, 13 Harbury Road, Henleaze, Bristol, BS9 4PN
Youth wing	Young Independence
Membership (2020)	3,888[1]
Ideology	Hard Euroscepticism[2] Right-wing populism[3] Economic liberalism[4] British nationalism[5]
Political position	Right-wing[6] to far-right[7][8] (2018–present) Historical: Single-issue (1993–1997) Right-wing[9] (1997–2018)
International affiliation	None
Colours	Purple, yellow
Local government[10]	0 / 18,725
Website
ukip.org

The United Kingdom Independence Party (often called UKIP, said "you-kipp") is a political party in the United Kingdom. Its policies promote conservatism, national conservatism, and Euroscepticism.

The party was founded in 1993, and they first won seats in the European Parliament in 1999. They won 3 seats in 1999, which was increased to 12 in 2004 and 13 in 2009. It is now 9. The party does not do well under Britain's 'First-past-the-post' system of elections and only had one seat in the British House of Commons, although they received 3.8 million votes (12.6% of the total vote) at the 2015 UK general election. Ukip suffered a complete loss of its remaining council seats in the May 2023 local elections, leaving it without any representation at any level.

Supporters of UKIP mostly believe in the following things:

• The United Kingdom should leave the European Union.
• There should be more referendums on certain issues.
• British people should not have to carry ID cards.

In 2008 UKIP banned people who used to be members of the British National Party (BNP) from joining. However, in 2022/23, this ban was lifted by the current party chair, Ben Walker. Instead, a ban on various left-wing organisations and environmentalist groups was enacted.

On 9 October 2014 Douglas Carswell became UKIP's first elected MP.^[11] Carswell quit the party in March 2017.^[12]

In 2020, UKIP had a total of 3,888 members but as of 2024, various reports indicate that UKIP’s membership has dwindled even further.

In the May 2014 local elections UKIP got 30% of the vote in Sunderland.^[13] The party gained 155 local council seats across the country.^[14]

UKIP came third in the May 2015 general election, after the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. The party got 12.9% of the vote and gained one seat.

In the 2017 general election, UKIP's share of the vote went down to 1.8 and they didn't win any seats. The next day UKIP's leader Paul Nuttall resigned.

In 2020, UKIP claimed to have 3,888 members in a report to the Electoral Commission but as of 2024, various reports indicate that UKIP’s membership has dwindled even further.

In February 2018 Gerard Batten become leader of the party firstly on an interim basis before winning the UKIP leadership election in April 2018 unopposed.^[15]

In the 2018 UK local elections UKIP lost 124 of the 126 seats it was defending, and gained a single seat in Derby.^[16]

Since the election of Batten as leader of the party there have been accusations that UKIP is embracing the far-right. Those saying the party was moving to the right began early in Battern's leadership when he began to focus the party around rejecting Islamic ideology and when a quote arose of Battern calling Islam a "death cult".^[17] In September 2018 Battern was also criticised for attending an anti-Muslim rally in Sunderland.^[18] These accusations grew much stronger after the far-right activist Tommy Robinson was appointed an advisor to Battern in November 2018.^[19] This led to many of UKIP's MEPs and former party leaders Nigel Farage and Paul Nuttall to leave the party, as well as the party's leader in Scotland.^{[20][21][22][23]}

In 2008 UKIP banned people who used to be members of the British National Party (BNP) from joining. However, in 2022/23, this ban was lifted by the current party chair, Ben Walker. Instead, a ban on various left-wing organisations and environmentalist groups was enacted, further adding to accusations that UKIP has firmly embraced the far-right.

• UKIP homepage