[137] By December 2018, a majority of the party's MEPs had left. [302] Ford and Goodwin also found that UKIP's support base was more working-class than that of any other party, with 42% of supporters in blue-collar jobs. [274], In December 2014, Richard Desmond, proprietor of Express Newspapers, donated 300,000 to UKIP. [412] Writing for The New York Times Magazine, Geoffrey Wheatcroft noted that there had been "a concerted campaign to brand UKIP as racist, an accusation that some of its own activists have done nothing to discourage. [352] This seat was unsuccessfully contested in the 2017 election. ", "Britain's Nationalist Moment: The Claims-Making of the SNP and UKIP", "Ukip, the 2015 General Election and Britain's EU Referendum", "The UK Independence Party and the Politics of Englishness", "Rivalry on the Right: The Conservatives, the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the EU Issue", "The Dilemmas of a Single-Issue Party: The UK Independence Party", "Defeat of the People's Army? [301] 55% of UKIP supporters had left school aged 16 or under, with only 24% having attended university, suggesting that the party primarily appealed to the least educated voters in society. [142] In May, the 2019 United Kingdom local elections saw UKIP lose around 80% of the seats it was defending. He was replaced by Gerard Batten as interim leader until a new leadership election could be held. [410] Popular stereotypes have framed it as a far-right party,[315] and portrayed its activists as old white men holding offensive views. This was followed by the party gaining around five hundred members. [211] Initially, UKIP's policy was that, in the event of them winning a general election, it would remove the UK from the EU without a referendum on the issue. The UK Independence Party (UKIP; /jukp/ YOO-kip) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. [418][419] Labour found that their campaign strategy of accusing UKIP of racism backfired, as rather than distancing UKIP supporters from the party it contributed to the perception that Labour failed to understand widespread concerns regarding immigration. [268], According to UKIP's annual returns to the Electoral Commission,[269] in 2013 the party had a total income of 2,479,314. [161], In March 2020, according to a tweet by the former leader, Gerard Batten, the party was reported to be "close to insolvency". Furthermore, in the London mayoral election, the UKIP candidate, Peter Gammons, achieved 0.6% of the total vote, finishing 13th. It lost its only seat in the 2017 election, when Clacton was regained by the Conservatives. [152], On 16 November 2019, National Executive Committee member Patricia Mountain was appointed interim leader in preparation for the December general election and the upcoming UKIP leadership election. Is Jeff Taylor for real? Are his commenters genuine or is it a - Reddit Jeff Taylor (politicus) - Jeff Taylor (politician) - abcdef.wiki Taylor, Jeff (2006). [295] This mirrored the voting base of other radical right parties across Western Europe which had grown since the early 1990s.