United Kingdom Independence Party

The United Kingdom Independence Party was formed on 3rd September 1993 at the London School of Economics by several members of the Anti-Federalist League (AFL). Currently, Nigel Farage (MEP) is the leader, and Paul Nuttall is the deputy leader of the party. David Campbell Bannerman who has since rejoined the UK Conservative Party was previously deputy leader.

Romano Prodi allegations

UKIP MEP Gerard Batten was implicated in an attempt to smear Romano Prodi as a former Soviet agent which involved Mario Scaramella and Alexander Litvinenko. According to the Guardian:

Litvinenko had no compunction in recalling a piece of gossip he had been told by a former KGB deputy director as he fled Russia. In 2000, General Anatoly Trofimov had warned Litvinenko not to go to Rome since "Prodi is our man in Italy". He was referring to Romano Prodi, the former Italian prime minister who went on to become president of the European Commission. Now Litvinenko regurgitated the unfounded claim to Scaramella who persuaded him to write it down.

On 29 March 2006, Litvinenko met UKIP MEP Gerard Batten at the Itsu restaurant in London. Four days later, with an Italian general election imminent, Batten called for an Inquiry into Prodi in the European Parliament.

In his one-minute speech during Strasbourg plenary, Gerard Batten (UK, IN/DEM) told how Alexander Litvinenko, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the FSB, the successor to the KGB, and currently living under political asylum in the UK, was informed by FSB deputy chief, General Anatole Trofimov of the high amount of communist activity operating in Italy. With reference to the KGB, Litvinenko was told, “Romano Prodi is our man there”.

Prodi responded by threatening to sue Litvinenko and Scaramella. In the resulting controversy, Silvio Berlusconi was forced to wind up the Mitrokhin Commission, and Prodi won the election.

Leadership contest

Diane James quit as UKIP leader after just 18 days in the job, saying she had enjoyed the support of members but not party colleagues. In a sign of the turmoil that UKIP stands in since her predecessor resigned, she said: 'It has become clear I do not have sufficient authority, nor the full support of MEP colleagues and party officers to implement the changes I believe are necessary and upon which I based my campaign.'

Islamophobia

Links with Islamophobic organisations

• On 11 September 2007, UKIP's Gerard Batten accepted a petition from Anders Gravers protesting a ban on a Brussels demonstration by Stop Islamisation of Europe. Batten also spoke at the Counterjihad Brussels 2007 conference in October 2007, has been linked to Christian Concern and wrote the foreword for Sam Solomon's 2006 Proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding'

Links with European far-right parties

UKIP is part of the group Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD), that includes representatives of the Danish People’s Party, the True Finns Party, the Dutch SGP and the Italian Lega Nord. Nigel Farage is co-President, the other being Lega Nord’s Francesco Speroni, who described murderer Anders Breivik as someone whose 'ideas are in defence of western civilisation.'

• Mario Borghezio, a member of the EFD, declared in an interview that Breivik had some 'excellent' ideas. In reaction, Farage wrote a strongly-worded letter to him, asking him to withdraw his comments or UKIP would pull out of the EFD. Borghezio did not apologise, and instead gave a speech in which he said: 'Long live the Whites of Europe, long live our identity, our ethnicity, our race… our blue sky, like the eyes of our women. Blue, in a people who want to stay white'. Nigel Farage did not withdraw from the group. He continues to co-preside over the new version of the group, Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), along with Five Star Movement's David Borelli </ref>

• MEP Nikki Sinclaire was expelled from UKIP in 2010 for refusing to take part in the EFD because of their 'extreme views'.

• In 2014, UKIP invited Polish MEP Robert Iwaszkiewicz (Congress of the New Right), whose far-right party leader frequently uses racial slurs and questions the Holocaust, into the EFDD, following fears that the grouping would lose millions of pounds of funds for lack of members.

Farage commments after Paris attacks

Following the January 2015 attacks in Paris including the murder of 12 people at the offices of magazine Charlie Hebdo, UKIP leader Nigel Farage, commented:

We do have, I'm afraid, I'm sad to say, a fifth column that is living within our own countries, that is utterly opposed to our values.

We're going to have to be a lot braver and a lot more courageous in standing up for our Judeo-Christian culture.

Farage's comments, which seemed to imply generalised Muslim responsibility and to paint Muslims as external to European society and cultural heritage, were criticised by other politicians. Liberal Democrat Tim Farron said 'Nigel Farage's politics of blame has no place in modern, diverse and tolerant Britain'.

People

• Diane James - former leader :from September 16 to October 04, 2016
• Nigel Farage - former leader
• Paul Nuttall - deputy
• Douglas Carswell - MP
• Mark Reckless - MP
• Gerard Batten - MEP
• Stuart Wheeler - Treasurer

Advisers

• Dick Morris, paid advisor
• Ben Pile

Donors

• UKIP treasure Stuart Wheeler revealed that in 2012-3 the lyricist Sir Tim Rice had donated £7500. Rice declined to confirm or deny the claim.

Notes

This article is part of the MEPedia project of Spinwatch.