With their big issue decided, bill bowkett ponders the future for the right-wing, nationalist party ukip
Let us start from the beginning. The party was founded on 3 September 1993 at the London School of Economics by members of the Anti-Federalist League, which had been founded by Dr Alan Sked in November 1991 with the aim of running candidates opposed to the Maastricht Treaty, creating a common economic community in the 1992 general election.
The party saw major success in EU elections, winning majority seats once held by Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. In 2014, the party lived up to its confident promise to top the vote from its last campaign, winning 27.5% of all votes cast. For the first 15 years, UKIP, despite the high profile in Europe, were under the shadow of John Major’s Conservative party and Tony Blair’s New Labour. UKIP were seen by many as a “Single issue party”. They were not reaching out to the population. That all changed when an MEP came into the mix and gave UKIP a louder voice. That man was, of course, Nigel Farage.
Originally part of the Conservative party, Farage left due to the European treaty and a year later became a UKIP politician. Farage was one of the party's first ever representatives in Brussels. For 10 years, he was the anti-EU figurehead, causing a stir with issues like immigration and currency. We all know him as the man at the pub with a pint in his hand, a giant cigar and his tweed patterned jacket, but Farage was had powerful voice and persistent opinions. He helped remove leaders from his own party, including the very popular Robert Kilroy-Smith. Despite failing to gain a seat in parliament in the 2010 election, Farage was not demoralised. He carried on as leader and took UKIP into new political territory, a quarter of the votes in the 2014 European election.
Come 2015, and UKIP appear with clearer party policies and a detailed manifesto. They included more thorough border checks, individual child support and of course, leaving the EU. However, it was not all plain sailing for Farage. A picture of him in a cab showed that he looked tired and at a BBC debate he was booed. UKIP overall though received 1.5 million votes, yet only one seat (Douglas Carswell) due to the FPTP system. Things went sour when Farage failed to gain a seat in parliament. It looked to be the end of UKIP when Farage stated that he was going to resign as leader, only to find out that he would remain in office after talking to the chief executive.
It was all a game, because six months later, David Cameron announced the referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, on June 23rd. This was it, all of UKIP’s existence came to this one summer day. Now it was the job of convincing the public that Brexit was the way forward. Although Farage was not part of the main leave campaign, the party drilled the facts that have been spoken of for the last 20 years again and again: controls on immigration, a stronger economy and less pressure on essential services. Many called Farage a “racist” but he remained thick-skinned and resilient. Finally, the result came. In the words of BBC journalist David Dimbleby, “We’re out.” Shortly afterwards Farage resigned from UKIP, saying how he “wanted my life back".
Now we are back to where we started, what is the point of UKIP? It has set out its only objective in its lifetime and there seems to be no more sense of purpose or direction. But really they still do. On Friday 16th September, UKIP members selected Dianne James, a former business woman, to become the new figurehead of the party. She wishes for Farage to still be a part of UKIP and set her aims after her victory. As the UK is set to cut itself off from Europe, by activating Clause 50, UKIP can still have a loud and persistent voice on the right of the political spectrum.
UKIP still have a future. Whether that will be a long one is another question. But it will be hard to forget the party that wanted ‘out’ right from day one.
Views expressed are author's own and do not represent those of Knights Templar School or its staff.