Stand Up to Ukip

Stand Up to Ukip launch statement


The 2014 European Elections mark a watershed in British politics. UKIP is a right wing, racist, populist party which won over 27 percent of the vote; a  staggering 4,352,051 people voted for them and they beat the three mainstream parties.

Ukip presents itself as an anti-establishment party and its leader, Nigel Farage, claims to be “a man of the people”. This is a lie. Ukip wants to introduce a flat rate of income tax of 31 per cent that means those on the starting and basic rate, will face huge tax increases. Ukip's deputy leader called for the privatisation of the NHS.

It has built up its electoral base by both presenting itself as a party opposed to the European Union, but more importantly by spreading poisonous  lies and hatred towards migrants and Muslims.

We believe UKIP is a racist party. This may be something Farage and the party’s leadership is quick to deny. But in the run up to the European elections Ukip’s mask slipped. Ukip presents the anti-racist movement with a major problem—dragging British politics to the right.

Ukip is also a party of bigots, sexists, Islamophobes and homophobes.

The rise of Ukip has parallels with other far right and fascist parties,  which are growing across Europe. In France the fascist Front National gained the biggest overall vote in the French European Elections. The PVV in the Netherlands, another racist populist party, came third and in Hungary the fascist Jobbik party came second.

Ukip received disproportionate media coverage prior to the elections and any party that received this level of coverage would have benefited at the polls.  Although UKIP received a high vote, 65 percent of the population did not vote. The mainstream political parties must do more to engage these people and not chase the Ukip vote to avoid the danger of racism being normalised in British society.

Now is the time to make a stand against Ukip.

The lesson of history is that we need unity against the far right and racism. Stand up to Ukip is an umbrella organisation which believes women,  trade unions, anti-racists, black, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, other faith communities, LBGT, young people, students and all good people,
must unite and stand up to Ukip, racism and bigotry.

Please join us.

Diane Abbott MP
Len McCluskey,  Unite the Union General Secretary
Ken Livingstone,  Mayor of London -  2000-2008
Owen Jones, Writer and Journalist
Sally Hunt, UCU General Secretary
Manuel Cortes, TSSA General Secretary
Ava Vidal, Comedian
Gerry Gable, Editor/ Publisher Searchlight Magazine
Hugh Lanning, Unite Against Fascism  vice chair 
Lindsey German, Convenor Stop the War Coalition 
Leon Silver,  president of the East London Central synagogue and steering group member, Tower Hamlets interfaith forum
Jo Cardwell, We Are Waltham Forest 
Denis Fernando,  Rainbow coalition against racism
Sean Hoyle,  President Wessex Region RMT 
Lisa Fletcher, Branch Chair  Unite Community  Portsmouth and District
Jon Woods, President Portsmouth TUC  and Chair  of Unison Portsmouth City Branch