For the first time since 1906, in 2014 a party other than the Conservatives or Labour won the highest share of the vote in a UK-wide election. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) not only won the greatest number of votes and seats in the European elections (Table 1), but also performed well in the local elections taking place at the same time. In these local elections, the party averaged 20% of the vote in Conservative-held wards, and 25% in Labour-held wards.
UKIP is a relative newcomer to the political scene, having been founded in 1993. It is a right-wing Eurosceptic party headed by Nigel Farage, a public-school educated former Conservative and stockbroker, who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 1999. On the UKIP official website, their head of policy, Tim Aker, describes the party thus:
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