UK Independence Party

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) is a British right-wing political party that is best-known for its call for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union and for other policies to control immigration. Its leader has been Paul Nuttall since 28th November 2016.

Leadership

Paul Nuttall was elected party leader on 28th November 2016; previously, he had been the deputy leader. Prior to Nuttall's election, Nigel Farage was the party's interim leader. He resigned in July 2016 but returned the following October when his elected successor, Diane James, stepped down after 18 days. James stated that she had not "formalised" the party's nomination and Farage indicated that he had technically remained in charge, leading to some confusion over the leadership. It appears she had not registered herself as leader with the Electoral Commission.

Electoral record

UKIP won the most UK seats in the 2014 elections to the European Parliament. It also has one representative in the UK Parliament, Douglas Carswell, who was previously a Conservative MP but defected and resigned to trigger a by-election, which he successfully contested. Prior to the 2015 general election, UKIP had a second MP, Mark Reckless, who also defected from the Conservatives. In that election, UKIP polled almost four million votes (13% of the total) but returned only one MP.

UKIP won six seats in the Welsh Assembly in the 2016 elections. Their group leader is Neil Hamilton, a former Conservative MP best-known for the 'cash for questions' scandal in the 1990s. The party has no seats in the Scottish Parliament.

European Union membership referendum

UKIP campaigned for Britain to leave the EU during the 2016 referendum, but was not part of the official 'leave' campaign. Farage predicted a narrow win for 'remain' on election night and pledged to fight on. As it happened, 'leave' won with 52% of the vote and Farage retracted his comments. He resigned as leader less than two weeks later.