UKIP: officials, incidents and party record
UKIP is a Eurosceptic, far-right populist political party in the United Kingdom. It enjoyed its high point in the mid-2010s, when it briefly had two MPs, both joining via defections, and became the la
Leader: Nick Tenconi
Founded: 1993
Headquarters: Henleaze Business Centre, Bristol
Ideology: British nationalism, Christian nationalism, Hard Euroscepticism
Position: Far-right
Membership: 3,888 (2020)
Website: https://www.ukip.org/
Tracked UKIP representatives (7)
- Ben Walker, National Party Chairman
- Donald MacKay, General Secretary, UKIP
- Gerard Batten, Former Member of the European Parliament for London
- Ian Garbutt, Party Treasurer, UKIP
- Janice MacKay, National Campaign Manager, UKIP
- Neil Hamilton, Honorary President of UKIP
- Nick Tenconi, Leader of UKIP
Recorded party incidents (showing 1-14 of 14)
Nick Tenconi (Leader) calls for mass deportations at Dudley protest
Category: xenophobia
Nick Tenconi (Leader) addressed a crowd at Coronation Gardens in Dudley and urged unity among right-wing political groups in support of mass deportation. He called on Rupert Lowe of Restore and Nigel Farage of Reform to join forces to send migrants home, and attendees began chanting a slogan to that effect. Music played over loudspeakers before speeches, including an anti-Palestine song and a track that included a line saying left-wing people could not be trusted with children. A counter-protest organised by Stand Up to Racism Black Country took place nearby and civic leaders issued a joint statement condemning far-right provocation and urging far-right figures to stay away. Police maintained a presence at both locations and the two groups did not come into contact. Both protests remained peaceful and there were no reports of violence or arrests. No disciplinary action by political parties was reported.
Ben Walker selected as UKIP candidate despite convictions and magistrate sacking
Category: ethics violation
Ben Walker, UKIP chairman, was chosen by UKIP to stand as the party’s candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Walker has five criminal convictions from 2019 relating to building work and was fined; he was removed from the magistracy by the Lord Chancellor after failing to disclose those convictions when appointed. Walker has said he did not realise the fines amounted to convictions and has dismissed references to them. Former deputy leader Rebecca Jane and former NEC member John Poynton resigned citing misconduct and concentration of power under Walker; Walker remains UKIP chairman and is listed on the ballot with the description "UKIP – NO to Illegal Immigration".
Nick Tenconi campaigned alongside an activist later jailed for the Southampton riot
Category: other
Location: Southampton
Leon O'Leary, 41, of Basingstoke, was photographed campaigning with Nick Tenconi at a demonstration outside Southampton police station in June 2026, following the murder of teenager Henry Nowak. Days later O'Leary pleaded guilty at Southampton Magistrates' Court to violent disorder, obstructing or resisting a constable, and possession of an offensive weapon, and on 9 June 2026 he was jailed for three years and one month at Southampton Crown Court for throwing a smoke grenade at police during the disorder. Searchlight reported the connection and noted O'Leary's earlier convictions for violence. There is no suggestion that Tenconi was involved in or aware of those offences. No public comment from Tenconi on the conviction was recorded in the reporting reviewed.
Sources: https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/06/nick-tenconi-and-the-southampton-rioter/ https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/06/nick-tenconis-pal-threw-smoke-grenade-at-police-in-southampton-riot/
UKIP accused of ignoring its own constitution, with no donations filed for a year
Category: party management issue
Searchlight reported in January 2026 that UKIP appeared not to be following its own constitution: the last National Executive Committee minutes on the party website dated from April 2025, despite a constitutional requirement for at least six meetings a year and annual NEC elections. It also reported that the party's last recorded donation with the Electoral Commission dated from January 2025, and described chairman Ben Walker as the controlling force behind the trust that controls the party. These are Searchlight's findings; no regulatory action has been reported.
Sources: https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/01/ukip-whitechapel-march-banned-as-party-ditches-its-rule-book/ https://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/English/Registrations/PP85
Police blocked a second UKIP march through Whitechapel, billed as a "March for Christ"
Category: inflammatory language
On 22 January 2026 the Metropolitan Police imposed conditions preventing a UKIP march planned for 31 January from passing through Tower Hamlets, saying allowing it would risk serious disorder. The march, promoted by Nick Tenconi with Calvin Robinson, was presented as a "March for Christ" to reaffirm Britain's Christian heritage. The Met said it was not a ban and the march could go ahead elsewhere in London. It was the second time in three months police had stopped UKIP marching through Whitechapel, one of London's largest Muslim communities. Searchlight said the event was designed to provoke a ban or community reaction; that is its assessment.
Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jan/22/police-block-ukip-march-through-tower-hamlets-over-violence-fears https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/News_events/2026/January/Met-impose-conditions-on-UKIP-Whitechapel-protest-to-prevent-disorder.aspx https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/01/ukip-whitechapel-march-banned-as-party-ditches-its-rule-book/
UKIP logo rejected as offensive, then replacement compared to the Iron Cross
Category: extremism
In November 2025 the Electoral Commission rejected a proposed new UKIP logo featuring a sword, deeming it offensive. In January 2026 the party applied with a replacement design, a black cross pattée, which The Guardian reported had been likened to the military cross associated with the German empire and later the Nazis. Hope Not Hate warned the logo was "echoing Nazi-style imagery". The cross pattée is an older heraldic symbol also used in British honours. The Electoral Commission register shows a new UKIP emblem, "UKIP and The New Right", authorised on 9 March 2026.
Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/13/new-proposed-ukip-logo-compared-to-iron-cross-used-by-nazi-regime https://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/English/Registrations/PP85
UKIP manifesto offered £500 for each "illegal migrant" reported by the public
Category: extremism
UKIP's manifesto under leader Nick Tenconi states that "any arrivals in Britain since 1997, be that legal, illegal or asylum seekers, will have their status in Britain questioned", and says the party "would offer a reward of £500 per illegal migrant correctly identified by British citizens", payable on arrest. Hope not Hate, which analysed the document in October 2025, said it would also ban Islamic faith schools, ban sex education for under-18s and restrict abortion care, and described its approach to trans people as denying their right to exist. Those characterisations are Hope not Hate's; the quoted policies are from the manifesto itself.
Sources: https://hopenothate.org.uk/2025/10/24/ukips-extremist-manifesto-deportations-informant-bounties-and-the-erasure-of-trans-lives/ https://irp.cdn-website.com/f6e3b8c6/files/uploaded/2025_Manifesto_-_REV3_MASTER_COPY.pdf
Remigration plans under Nick Tenconi assessed as covering one in seven UK residents
Category: xenophobia
Location: United Kingdom
HOPE not hate reported in October 2025 that the remigration proposals promoted by Nick Tenconi as UKIP leader would, on its assessment, involve the deportation of around one in seven of the UK population. The anti-racism group said Tenconi had turned the summer's anti-migrant protests into a personal political roadshow, appearing at locations across the country and preaching hate in the name of God. The party's mass deportations tour has been accompanied by street demonstrations in cities including Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow and Leeds. Tenconi presents the policy as the lawful removal of people he describes as invaders and illegals. The scale of the proposals, and the way people are categorised for removal, drew criticism from anti-racism campaigners and counter-protest organisers.
Sources: https://hopenothate.org.uk/2025/10/21/nick-tenconi-from-pornographic-tweets-to-deporting-one-in-seven/ https://thebattleground.eu/2026/01/19/right-of-farage/
Police blocked UKIP protest billed as a crusade to reclaim Whitechapel from the Islamists
Category: xenophobia
Location: Tower Hamlets, London
The Metropolitan Police imposed Public Order Act conditions on 21 October 2025 preventing a UKIP demonstration led by Nick Tenconi from taking place in Whitechapel or anywhere else in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets on 25 October. The event formed part of a series promoted as a mass deportations tour, and organisers described it as a crusade, urging supporters to reclaim Whitechapel from the Islamists and take our country back. Commander Nick John said Tower Hamlets has the largest percentage of Muslim residents anywhere in the UK, that the prospect of the protest in the heart of the borough had caused significant concern locally, and that there was a realistic prospect of serious disorder if it went ahead in the proposed location. UKIP said the force had caved into the Islamists and claimed its right to peaceful assembly had been violated, and the event was relocated to central London. In December 2025 the law firm Imran Khan and Partners, acting for Legal Action for Peace, served a letter of claim on the Met arguing it should not have permitted the relocated protest. A further UKIP march planned for Whitechapel on 31 January 2026 was also banned and moved.
Sources: https://news.met.police.uk/news/met-intervenes-to-prevent-serious-disorder-at-whitechapel-protest-502395 https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/who-is-nick-tenconi-ukip-protests-banned-from-tower-hamlets-b1254312.html https://5pillarsuk.com/2025/12/23/uk-lawyers-launch-case-against-met-police-for-failing-to-halt-crusade-protest-against-muslims/ https://searchlightmagazine.com/2026/02/tenconis-ukip-clown-show-walks-with-jesus-but-needs-a-miracle/
Nick Tenconi said he would deploy the military to round up Islamists and communists
Category: inflammatory language
Location: United Kingdom
In a speech published by UKIP's official account on 12 October 2025, Nick Tenconi said: "I will deploy the military in Britain to round up and deport the Islamists, illegals and the communists." He also said he would close the borders and begin mass deportations. The remarks were criticised for proposing the use of the armed forces against people defined by their religion and their political beliefs, and were reported as part of a wider pattern of escalating rhetoric at anti-migrant demonstrations across the country. Tenconi has defended his language as a defence of national identity and Christian values.
Sources: https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2025/10/13/ukip-leader-nick-tenconi/ https://thebattleground.eu/2026/01/19/right-of-farage/
Nick Tenconi accused of making a Nazi-style salute at an anti-migrant protest in Portsmouth
Category: inflammatory language
Location: Portsmouth
Nick Tenconi, leader of UKIP, was filmed at an anti-migrant protest near South Parade Pier in Southsea, Portsmouth on 8 August 2025, opposite the Royal Beach Hotel, which was being used to house people seeking asylum. Footage he posted himself showed him dancing to a track associated with parts of the German far right before putting his fist to his chest and raising his right arm. The gesture was widely compared online to a Nazi salute, and Searchlight described it as a clear and deliberate action. Tenconi rejected the comparison. He said he had used what he called a unique salute for the previous 13 months, described its origins as a Roman victory salute amalgamated with the power fist symbol, and said UKIP stands against the far right and Nazism. Turning Point UK, where he is chief operating officer, said he had made a close-fisted salute. Stand Up To Racism in Portsmouth accused him of seeking plausible deniability and said it was horrifying to see the gesture performed on the city seafront.
Sources: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ukip-leader-nick-tenconi-accused-35706228 https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/politics/nothing-nazi-esque-ukip-leader-defends-gesture-at-portsmouth-protest-5266716 https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/proscribe-ukip-who-is-leader-nick-tenconi-396521/
Questions over social media posts attributed to Nick Tenconi that objectified women
Category: social media conduct
Location: United Kingdom
In September 2024 Searchlight reported that UKIP dissidents had published screenshots of sexually explicit social media exchanges which they alleged involved Nick Tenconi, including messages sent from an account in the name of his company, Tenco Training Ltd. HOPE not hate later referred to a history of social media posts which objectify women when it profiled him in October 2025. The material was circulated during internal feuding inside UKIP and has not been independently authenticated. It is recorded here as an allegation made by the named organisations, set against Tenconi's public presentation of himself as a Christian moral voice. No response from Tenconi to the specific screenshots was recorded in the reporting reviewed.
Sources: https://searchlightmagazine.com/2024/09/ukip-leader-hit-by-sex-allegations/ https://hopenothate.org.uk/2025/10/21/nick-tenconi-from-pornographic-tweets-to-deporting-one-in-seven/
UKIP leader Lois Perry resigned after 34 days, mid general election campaign
Category: party management issue
Lois Perry resigned as UKIP leader on 15 June 2024, around a month after winning the leadership and in the middle of the general election campaign, citing health reasons. Searchlight reported that before she quit she had been sent a dossier by party dissidents raising concerns about the party's chairman, Ben Walker, and the state of the party, and that she faced a public hustings where those matters were expected to be raised. Those claims are Searchlight's reporting; Perry's stated reason was her health.
Sources: https://searchlightmagazine.com/2024/06/newly-elected-ukip-leader-quits/ https://www.gbnews.com/politics/ukip-leader-lois-perry-resigns-mid-election-after-34-days
Reported conduct at Honor Oak drag storytime protests and hostile posts about trans people
Category: inappropriate behaviour
Location: Honor Oak, Lewisham, London
As chief operating officer of Turning Point UK, Nick Tenconi helped organise repeated street demonstrations in 2023 outside a pub in Honor Oak, Lewisham, which had held drag queen storytime events. The protests were consistently outnumbered by counter-demonstrators. Trans Safety Network reported that Tenconi was enthusiastically involved in the street violence, personally offering to fight individuals, and physically moving towards and grabbing at counter-protesters. Pink News reported that he used his social media platform to express hostile views about trans people. These accounts are those of the organisations that reported them and have not been tested in court.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Tenconi https://hopenothate.org.uk/case-files-turning-point-uk/ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/apr/17/conservatives-turning-point-uk-labour-lib-dems