MEPs elected for Libertas UK - Alliance for Democracy in 2009
- East Midlands: Richard Elvin (Libertas)
- East of England: Robin Page (UK First)
- London: George Hargreaves (Christian Party)
- North West England: Steve Radford (Liberal Party)
- South East England: Steve Uncles (English Democrats)
- South West England: Sir Ranulph Fiennes (Countryside Party)
- Yorkshire and the Humber: Peter Davies (English Democrats)
UKIP reached its apogee in the European elections of 2004, with a hard-hitting billboard campaign and a candidate people had actually heard of in Robert Kilroy-Silk. In the months and years after that May, though, things fell apart for UKIP. First Kilroy attracted headlines with his quixotic quest for the UKIP leadership, then new Tory leader David Cameron pledged to take the party out of the Commission majority, and then the BNP started to surge electorally, leaving Knapman's party spinning its wheels on the starting line.
The final death knell for UKIP was the formation of the Alliance for Democracy, an electoral coalition formed by the English Democrats, the Continuity Liberals, Veritas (only after the departure of Kilroy), the Countryside Party, the Christian Party, the Jury Team, the Pensioners' Party and various other Eurosceptic micro-parties. This Alliance boasted two reasonably well-known candidates, in the explorer Ranulph Fiennes and the guy who presented
One Man and His Dog, Robin Page, and therefore attracted significant column inches.
Their manifesto was timely: not only did the AfD key into the knee-jerk Euroscepticism inherent in the British (or, in deference to the largest member of the Alliance, English) psyche, they also made an impact with their policies to limit deficit spending, toughen sentences for violent criminals, cut benefits for the undeserving poor, and - most significantly - cut down on politicians' expenses. This anti-politician stance was useful not only in contrasting with the major parties, whose snouts were revealed to be extremely trough-adjacent by the press in a major scandal, but also in calling out the lifestyles of certain UKIP MEPs.
The final member of the AfD arrived in election year itself, as Declan Ganley's ego-trip Europarty, Libertas.eu, persuaded the AfD to accept its UK affiliate as a member in return for a large donation. This assisted the AfD in achieving 9% of the vote and 7 MEPs, although many voters seem to have been put off by the masturbatory nature of the Libertas name on the ballot paper, if the designs drawn on spoilt ballots can be taken as an indication.
These 7 seats brought the AfD slightly ahead of UKIP, on 5, and the BNP on 4. But their failure to wipe out UKIP bred more failure. The Alliance refused to countenance joining the same Euro group as either of their rivals on the Right, largely for ease of differentiation and to avoid allying with any unsavoury characters. But as the Tories refused to let them join their own new group, the AfD were forced to remain Non-Inscrits and subsist on less speaking time than other MEPs - and it was now vital to be able to put eyecatching speeches on the new medium of YouTube in order to remain relevant among the sort of obsessive, Extremely Online loners who A) watch Eurosceptic speeches on YouTube and B) form the core of the party activist class.
Furthermore, the decision to remain Non-Inscrits caused further trouble as Richard Elvin defected from the AfD to join the French Libertas MEP in UKIP's group, upon the orders of Ganley. This was the first of a wave of defections, with Peter Davies becoming an Independent and Hargreaves and Radford taking their parties out of the Alliance before their term was up. When Robin Page challenged Fiennes for the parliamentary leadership in 2013, they were put in a ridiculous situation of having to beg for the casting vote of Steve Uncles, the third remaining MEP. Page lost and defected back to UKIP, which was glad to see him as it was suffering from a similar level of shrinkage itself in its final years.
Needless to say, neither UKIP nor the AfD were returned in the 2014 elections, bringing a fascinating tale to a close - a rare example of micro-parties not only being able to work together for more than six months, but also achieve genuine electoral success by dint of this co-operation.