The rug pulled from under them : UKIP and the Greens

First published online: 19 March 2018The two parties that lost the most votes at the 2017 General Election were the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the Greens. This contribution considers the causes of the decline of each party. I show that neither was able to find a clear role in the party system following the EU referendum and the election of Jeremy Corbyn, respectively. These two events robbed UKIP and the Greens of their primary appeal to voters, resulting in losses in membership, less media interest and, in the case of UKIP, internal disunity. In response, both parties attempted to strike an awkward balance between three campaigning approaches: advocating or emphasising new policies, retaining their claim as the original and bona fide voice of their key policy, and suggesting electoral cooperation with ideologically congruent elements of, respectively, the pro-Brexit Conservatives and Corbyn-led Labour Party. However, once the election was called, neither party was in a position either to campaign effectively against or negotiate with their rivals for votes, leading to a second sudden decline for both, as both the right and left of the British electorate reunified around the Conservatives and Labour respectively