UK Independence Party
About UKIP
History
The UK Independence Party was founded in 1993, to seek Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, at the London School of Economics by several members of the Anti-Federalist League (AFL). The AFL had been founded by Dr Alan Sked in November 1991 with the aim of running candidates opposed to the Maastricht Treaty in the 1992 general election.
Since that time, we have attracted membership from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat backgrounds — principled men and women who want their country back.
UKIP has grown steadily as more people see through the European 'project'. We are now the fourth political party — in 1999, we won three seats in the European Parliament, a platform we use to reveal the truth about the EU.
What UKIP stands for
UKIP is a non-racist, non-sectarian party. It includes British people of all backgrounds who value individual freedom, tolerance and our right to govern ourselves.
UKIP really believes in Britain and Britain's future as an independent nation competing in the world. We are not 'anti-European', but we oppose British membership of an EU that stifles our initiative and threatens our freedom.
We do not seek to abolish the EU, for we believe that each nation in Europe should decide its own future. Britain has no more right to control them than they have to impose their will on us.
UKIP is the only political party contesting elections that will never abolish the Pound for the Euro and will never abandon British common law, the right to trial by jury or the presumption of innocence.
Indeed we are the only party left that genuinely believes in freedom — freedom for the individual, freedom for businesses and local communities, freedom from patronising 'political-correctness' and from intolerance or injustice.
We seek an independent, outward-looking Britain, not the offshore province of a centralised 'Europe', whose people are told what to do and what to think.
UKIP has grown to have constituency branches around the country, new national headquarters in Newton Abbot, Devon, and a national party newsletter, the UK Independence News.
In order to protect the party from infiltration by extremists, all party members must sign a membership form supporting the party's principles, which must also be respected by conference. All prospective candidates and constituency office bearers must sign declarations confirming that they have no criminal record and no previous association with extremist political groups of right and left.
