ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a combination of the academic literature regarding UK Independence Party (UKIP), media reporting, and primary ethnographic research carried out among UKIP activists and supporters before, during, and after the UK’s referendum on European Union membership in June 2016. UKIP supporters in South Yorkshire also evinced frustration with the management style of the still largely southern-based party leadership, frequently citing the lack of adequate support for local council elections. As UKIP’s leaders and members struggled to resolve these disputes, it became clear that UKIP had become a vehicle for two different movements: a straightforward Eurosceptic movement, and a radical right, anti-Islam movement. Party membership more than doubled between 2010 and 2013 – providing a significant increase both in human and financial resources – and UKIP made significant electoral gains at a series of local elections, becoming the official opposition, or even gaining control of several local authorities.
