Ukip

A bunch of fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists.~ David Cameron

The United Kingdom Independence Party was originally founded to lobby for a British exit from the EU, but it has since expanded its scope to embrace people who are upset about immigration, homosexuals, and trains being painted the wrong colours.

History

UKIP was formed in 1993 by a group of people opposed to the Maastricht Treaty, thinking it was so horrible that the only way to deal with it was the leave the EU completely. UKIP fielded candidates in the 1997 general election, but Eurosceptics were more drawn to the Referendum Party at the time which, as the same suggests, wanted a referendum on leaving the EU as opposed to UKIP's policy of the time which was just to leave the EU.

UKIP grew in strength and numbers throughout the 1990s and 2000s with candidate standing in basically every election they could.

Nigel Farage, the Party's current leader, was elected to the post in 2006.

UKIP in Westminster

UKIP's first two elected MPs, Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless.

Douglas Carswell defected to UKIP from the Conservative Party in 2014. He forced a by-election in his seat (even though he didn't have to) and won as the UKIP candidate. He became UKIP's first elected MP.

Later that same year mark Reckless also defected from the Conservatives to UKIP and again forced a by-election and again won the seat for UKIP. There were rumours that more Conservative MPs were going to defect to UKIP but none did.

2015 General Election

It got to the point where journalists would come into HQ and we’d have to lock certain doors because the people behind those doors were too embarrassing to be seen.~ Ukip election strategist Raheem Kassam

Despite the party's raised profile and increasing gains, Mark Reckless lost his seat to the Conservatives and Carswell became the party's only MP.

As Nigel Farage failed to win a seat at the election, he resigned the leadership of the Party. However, the UKIP NEC rejected his resignation and asked him to stay on as leader. Farage accepted the offer and withdrew his offer of resignation. This caused a lot of controversy within the Party about who should be leader, if there should be a leadership election and if Farage had basically turned UKIP into a personal cult.

Controversies

UKIP has a habit of being filled with people with some very strange ideas, including the idea that gay people are responsible for the weather, that businesses shouldn't hire women capable of having children and that Robert Kilroy-Silk was a good idea to name just a few.

To prove that they're a grown up, completely serious political party, they even had their own expenses scandal.