The UK Independence Party is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of parliament and was the largest party representing the UK in the European Parliament. UKIP's visibility and success was chiefly associated with two-time leader Nigel Farage; since his second departure in 2016, the party has seen a steep decline in support and eleven different leaders, the most recent being Lois Perry since May 2024.
Nigel Paul Farage is a British politician who has served as leader of Reform UK since June 2024, formerly serving as leader from 2019 to 2021. He was the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016. Farage was the honorary president of Reform UK from 2021 to 2024. He is a presenter for GB News and a candidate for the parliamentary constituency of Clacton. He served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 1999 until the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union in 2020.
Ivan John Henderson is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harwich from 1997 to 2005. He is currently a member of Essex County Council for Harwich.
Boston and Skegness is a county constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It is located in Lincolnshire, England. Like all British constituencies, Boston and Skegness elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election. The seat has been represented by the Conservative MP Matt Warman since the 2015 general election, and is usually considered a safe seat for the party.
John Douglas Wilson Carswell is a British former politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2017, co-founded Vote Leave and currently serves as president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
Clacton is a constituency in Essex represented in the British House of Commons since 2017 by Giles Watling of the Conservative Party.
Craig Mackinlay is a Conservative Party politician and businessman. From 2015 to 2024, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet.
This article lists the election results and representation of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) with respect to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Scottish Parliament, Senedd, Northern Ireland Assembly, London Assembly, European Parliament and local authorities.
Mark John Reckless is a British lawyer and former politician who served as a Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales East from 2016 until 2021, having previously served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochester and Strood from 2010 to 2015. Initially a member of the Conservative Party, he crossed the floor to join the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in September 2014. He has since changed parties a further three times.
The 2014 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2014 European Parliament election, held on Thursday 22 May 2014, coinciding with the 2014 local elections in England and Northern Ireland. In total, 73 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation. England, Scotland and Wales use a closed-list party list system of PR, while Northern Ireland used the single transferable vote (STV).
Since 2009, the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom has experimented with the use of open primaries to select some parliamentary candidates.
On 5 June 2014, a by-election was held for the UK parliamentary constituency of Newark, following the resignation of Patrick Mercer. Conservative Robert Jenrick won the seat with a majority of 7,403.
On 9 October 2014, a by-election was held for the UK parliamentary constituency of Clacton in Essex, England. The by-election was triggered by the Conservative MP for Clacton, Douglas Carswell, defecting to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and subsequently resigning his seat to seek re-election as its candidate.
A by-election was held on 20 November 2014 for the UK parliamentary constituency of Rochester and Strood in Kent, England. The sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Mark Reckless called it on joining the UK Independence Party (UKIP), from the Conservatives. He resigned his seat.
On 3 December 2015, a by-election was held in the UK Parliamentary constituency of Oldham West and Royton in Greater Manchester. This was the first by-election of the 56th UK Parliament.
Nigel Farage is a former British MEP who has stood as a candidate representing eurosceptic parties UK Independence Party (UKIP) and The Brexit Party since 1994. He was a Member of the European Parliament representing South East England since the 1999 election, winning re-election four times. Farage has stood for election to the House of Commons seven times, in five general elections and two by-elections, losing in each by significant margins. He was also a proponent of the UK leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum, in which the electorate voted to do so by 52% to 48%.
The September 2016 UK Independence Party leadership election was triggered after Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, announced on 4 July 2016, following the Leave result in the UK referendum on EU membership, that he would step down when a new leader had been elected.
Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating a no-deal Brexit, it won the 2019 European Parliament election in the UK, but did not win any seats at the 2019 general election. The UK withdrew from the EU in January 2020. A year later, in January 2021, the party renamed itself Reform UK. During the COVID-19 pandemic the party advocated against further lockdowns. Since 2022, the party has campaigned on a broader platform, in particular opposing immigration and the government's Net Zero energy policy. Following Farage's resumption of the party leadership in early June during the 2024 general election campaign, opinion pollsters and analysts reported an increase in support for the party.
Matthew Richard Patten is a former British politician, who represented the Brexit Party. He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East Midlands between 2019 and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020. He had previously been a Conservative councillor for Bradfield, Wix and Wrabness in Tendring District, Essex.
The 2019 European Parliament election for the election of the delegation from the United Kingdom was held on 23 May 2019. These were the last elections to the European Parliament to be held before Brexit.
