Who leads and who follows? The symbiotic relationship between UKIP and the Conservatives – and populism and Euroscepticism
| Published date | 01 August 2018 |
| Date | 01 August 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0263395718754718 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395718754718
Politics
2018, Vol. 38(3) 263 –277
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0263395718754718
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Who leads and who follows?
The symbiotic relationship
between UKIP and the
Conservatives – and populism
and Euroscepticism
Tim Bale
Queen Mary University of London, UK
Abstract
The UK Independence Party (UKIP) is not so much a populist party that became Eurosceptic as a
Eurosceptic party that became populist. However, careful tracing of a sequence that began in the
late 1990s reveals that it was not UKIP but the Conservative Party that first fused populism and
Euroscepticism. David Cameron’s decision in 2006 to temporarily abandon both approaches, just
as Nigel Farage became UKIP’s leader, turned out, in historical institutionalist terms, to be a critical
juncture. It provided UKIP with an opportunity to fill the gap, after which the Conservatives were
unable, as Europe was hit by successive economic and migration crises, to regain the initiative. As a
result, and as Cameron’s coalition government failed to meet its promises to control immigration,
UKIP enjoyed increasing electoral success. This allowed it to exert significant, if indirect, pressure
on the Tories, eventually helping to force Cameron into promising an in/out referendum – a
promise that did neither him nor his party any good. The UK case, therefore, reminds us that
anyone wanting to understand populist Euroscepticism needs to appreciate that the relationship
between the radical right and its mainstream, centre-right counterpart is more reciprocal, and
even symbiotic, than is commonly imagined.
Keywords
Brexit, Conservative Party, Euroscepticism, populism, UKIP
Received: 24th July 2017; Revised version received: 1st December 2017; Accepted: 14th December 2017
Why did David Cameron call for an in /out referendum on the United Kingdom’s European
Union (EU) membership just six short years after beginning his leadership of the
Conservative Party by calling on it to stop ‘banging on about Europe’ and just two or
so years after entering Number Ten with absolutely no intention whatsoever of holding
such a vote? And why did his decision do him – and his party – so little good?
Corresponding author:
Tim Bale, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK.
Email: t.bale@qmul.ac.uk
754718POL0010.1177/0263395718754718PoliticsBale
research-article2018
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