2015 is not the end of UKIP
Despite UKIP failing to dramatically increase the number of seats for their party in Parliament from the 0 seat count in 2010 to the meagre 1 seat of Douglas Carswell in Clacton (a former member of the Conservative party), they did see a substantial increase in their vote count. This has seen an exponential rise ever since the General Election in 2001 where they gained 390,563, in the 2005 General Election they gained 605 973, in 2010 919,471 and finally in 2015 a huge boom of widespread popularity tallying 3,881,129 votes which was the third highest number of votes out of all parties standing for election after the Tories and Labour. These array of statistics showing results over the past 4 General Elections has proved how this is not the end of UKIP nationally as it continues to grow with its support both through the public and through the increase of Parliamentary candidates each term. If UKIP along with other parties are successfully able to push through a Westminster voting reform (similar to one of proportional representation), despite its relatively low priority on the public’s agenda presently, they will see a huge flux of Parliamentary candidates turning into members of Parliament.
Secondly, we can see that the recent General Election is not the end of UKIP due the ever-increasing and successful European campaign due to its hard Euroscepticism - urging the UK to leave the EU. As of the 2014 European Parliament elections, UKIP has the most seats with 22 out of 73 showing that their issue of being in the EU is shared amongst many other members of the British public. The pivotal moment in UKIP’s future will not necessarily be the election results from this year’s General Election, rather the In-Out Referendum for Europe in 2017 promised by the current Conservative government in 2017. Although, it could still be further argued that UKIP have evolved and further developed in its policies, encompassing its historical roots of right European radicalism with civic nationalist, economically liberal, and socially conservative policies resulting in the party moving away from being single-issue with functions similar to a pressure group.
Lastly, UKIP’s right-wing populism would seemingly still be supported, even after their failure at the recent General Election, as UKIP managed to gain a lot of popularity up in the north of England. In three seats in Sunderland, and one in Swindon, the results show the Lib Dem vote collapsed but Labour didn't benefit much. The UKIP vote, meanwhile, jumped. At a glance, going from Lib Dem to UKIP looks like a big jump: from a broadly left-wing party to a right-wing one. But actually, it makes a certain sense: the Lib Dems were the anti-establishment party in 2010, UKIP are the anti-establishment party now. Some Labour people believe it's happening. Alan Johnson, a former Labour Cabinet minister, says "The Lib Dem collapse hasn't come to us, some has gone to UKIP, some has gone to Tories." In the north of England UKIP’s vote swing since the 2010 General Election was the highest out of all the parties where in Blaydon they were up 17.5% since 2010, in Blyth Valley up 18% and in Hartlepool they were up 21%. Also, interestingly the Number of second place in seats UKIP won tallied to 125 showing their increasing power across England and Wales.
Oliver Taylor-Rose - Academic