7 minor parties and the Liberal Democrat’s

• Liberal Party


  The earliest form of liberalism in the English political system, emerging in the 17th century as opponents of the Tories
• Liberal Party development


  1. Joined a variety of middle and working-class supporters in the mid 19th century

  2. Became one of the two major parties with the Conservative Party

  3. Remained one of the two major parties until World War I
• Classical liberals


  • Committed above all else to the freedom of the individual and the minimal role of government in society
• Modern liberals


  • Recognized that many individuals couldn't be truly free due to inequalities produced by free market capitalism, so the state should actively support some members of society to enable them to be free
• Liberal Party decline after World War I


  • Rivalry between Asquith and David Lloyd George
  • Inability to define their identity in an area of increasing class polarization between Labour and the Conservatives
• Liberal Democrats

  Formed in 1988 from an alliance between the Liberal Party and the breakaway Social Democratic Party from Labour
• Liberal Democrats' growth


  1. Gradual increase in vote share and seats, reaching 62 seats by 2005

  2. Joined coalition government with Conservatives in 2010, leading to unpopular policies and a decline in support
• Liberal Democrats


  • Divided between 'modern liberals' like Charles Kennedy and 'economic/orange book liberals' like Nick Clegg who emphasize free markets
• The Liberal Democrats are no longer considered a major party and have significantly decreased in relevance, support and power since 2010
• Scottish National Party (SNP)


  Founded in 1934, main purpose is to secure Scottish independence from the UK
• SNP's rise to power in Scotland

  1. Formed a minority government in 2007, then a small majority in 2011

  2. Held a Scottish independence referendum in 2014 which was narrowly lost
• Since 2016, the SNP has been in power in Scotland either as a minority government or in coalition with the Scottish Greens
• The S P's majority victory in 2011 led the Westminster government to agree to a Scottish independence referendum which was held in 2014
• The independence campaign however was narrowly lost which led uh leader salmon to resign and he was replaced by Nicholas sturgeon who's been largely popular and had significant success both in Scottish and Westminster elections but unexpectedly resigned recently in February 2023 saying she no longer had the stamina to continue and there was the right time to quit
• In 2015 they won the vast majority of Scottish MPS so 56 out of 59 2017 that decreased to 35. the increase again to 48 in 2019. when English votes for English laws was in place the power of Scottish MPS in Westminster was reduced um but it's since been scrapped so the kind of power of um SNP MPS they can vote on more in Westminster um or kind of their votes can have more impact because um they can't get vetoed by English MPS
• Even when English votes for English laws wasn't in place s p m p is often refrained from voting on matters that didn't affect their Scottish constituents out of principle and to emphasize the argument that there should be Scottish independence
• The S P's most important policy

  • Scottish independence from the United Kingdom
• In 2017 and 2019 the SNP promoted policies similar to labors in the UK um including opposing austerity and arguing that it should be ended
• In 2023 the Scottish government increased the higher and top rates of income tax so that both rates um are now two percent higher than the rest of the UK
• The SNP support free University tuition fees in Scotland, support immigration and want to control uh one kind of control over immigration to be devolved to Scotland, they're pro-europe and want Scotland to rejoin the European Union once independent, they support further demolition in general um increase health care spending in the rest of the UK and a post-trident and argument could be scrub
• UKIP began as a fringe nationalist party in 1991 but by the 21st century um it was associated with one man and one issue so that was Nigel farage key leader of ukip and opposition to Britain's membership of the EU
• In the 2014 European elections European Parliament elections ukip gained a total of 24 MEPS making it the largest UK party in the Europe European Parliament
• In the 2015 general election it won 3.9 million votes a very significant number of votes um but this returned just one MP due to um the first person electoral system which damages minor parties
• After securing victory in the 2016 EU referendum um farage saw his job was done and the party is then kind of steadily declined in importance since
• By 2019 um however Britain had still not left the EU and there was still a ukip party but it kind of really kind of um became no longer relevant and Nigel farage launched the brexit party ahead of the May 2019 European Parliament elections to put pressure for a hard brexit deal and opposed Teresa May's more moderate with jewelry
• The brexit party in the 2019 European Parliament elections won the most votes out of any party and the most seats at 30.5 percent the threat the brexit party posed the conservative party played a large part in the conservative party ship to the right
• Farage agreed not to stand brexit party candidates in seats with sitting conservative MPS in the 2019 election the party still won two percent of the vote um but didn't win any seats
• Even though ukip and the brexit party weren't able to win an election or win many seats in um um in the UK Parliament they were able to have a massive influence on politics in terms of the ideas and policies of ukip's sister brexit party
• Key policies of UKIP and the Brexit Party

  • Leave the EU in a way that regained the UK political sovereignty and reduced immigration
• The green party um evolved from a Party founded in 1933 as people um later changing its name to the ecology party uh before changing its name to the green party in 1985
• In the 2019 European elections they won seven MEPS and 12 percent of the vote and in the 2019 general election they won 2.7 of the vote but again just one seat again Caroline Lucas and Brighton Pavilion
• Key policies of the Green Party


  • Combined investment of over 100 billion pounds a year in the green New Deal to tackle climate change, support getting the net zero emissions by 2030, oppose fracking and supported the phasing out of fossil fuels and nuclear power in the UK in favor of renewable sources, support reducing social inequality, support a universal basic income and a four-day working week, support abolishing tuition fees and a new wealth tax
• Clyde kumri um which um in English is the Welsh nationalist party and it's officially committed to Independence for Wales within the EU in practice has been kind of more concerned with the preservation of wealth language and culture
• Clyde became the second largest party in the assembly and was in Coalition with labor until it dropped to third place um and out of Government after the 2011 election and most recently in the 2019 UK Parliament election they won four seats and 0.5 of the vote
• Due to the first part of post-electoral system which underrepresents minor parties the UK has kind of can largely or kind of has often been described as a two-party system
• The UK however could it could be described as a dominant party system um for example Between 1979 and 1997 it was only the conservative party in power then from 1997 to 2010 it was only the labor party and since 2010 it's only been the conservative party in power
• In 2010 and 2015 there is an argument and especially the time and there's a key argument the UK was an increasingly multi-party system with the liberal Democrats and SMP um in particular winning significant numbers of seats and it no longer and significant numbers of votes as well in Coalition with the Tory parties live dance were able to have a significant impact on policy and governing the UK from 2010 to 2015
• The two main parties increased their vote share again though um and the UK could be argued to kind of have shift it back um to a more clearly two-party system again if you didn't think it kind of was a two-party system anyway
• The first part of those voting system greatly reduces the power and relevance of smaller parties and benefits labor in the Tories one of whom has either been in government alone or as a majority partner in a coalition since the end of World War II
• Since the 2017 election there's also been an increase in support for the two main parties as I mentioned um within 2017 the labor and Tory is winning 82.4 of the vote um and in 2019 they won 75.7 of vote