UK Independence Party facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
UK Independence Party
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|
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Abbreviation | UKIP |
Leader | Vacant |
Deputy Leader | Vacant |
Chairman | Ben Walker (interim) |
Deputy Chair | Vacant |
General Secretary | Freddy Vachha (interim) |
Founder | Alan Sked |
Founded | 3 September 1993 |
Preceded by | Anti-Federalist League |
Headquarters | Lexdrum House Unit 1 King Charles Business Park Old Newton Road Heathfield Newton Abbot TQ12 6UT |
Youth wing | Young Independence |
Membership (2019) | 26,447 |
Ideology | Hard Euroscepticism Right-wing populism Economic liberalism British nationalism |
Political position | Right-wing to far-right (2018–present) Historical: Single-issue (1993–1997) Right-wing (1997–2018) |
International affiliation | None |
Colours | Purple, yellow |
National Assembly for Wales |
1 / 60
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Local government |
27 / 20,249
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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. Their main policy is for the UK to leave the European Union.
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 has 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.
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.
On 9 October 2014 Douglas Carswell became UKIP's first elected MP. Carswell quit the party in March 2017.
Contents
May 2014 local elections
In the May 2014 local elections UKIP got 30% of the vote in Sunderland. The party gained 155 local council seats across the country.
2015 general election
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.
2017 general election
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.
Current members
There are currently over 20,000 people who are members of the UKIP.
Gerard Batten becomes leader (2018)
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.
2018 UK local elections
In the 2018 UK local elections UKIP lost 124 of the 126 seats it was defending, and gained a single seat in Derby.
See also
In Spanish: Partido de la Independencia del Reino Unido para niños