Claim 23d9c71bChecked 09 Jul 2026
Partly True/FalseOn the truth scale
“UKIP attracts an incredibly diverse range of people.”
Reasoning & Evidence09 Jul 2026
Partly true. UKIP did attract voters from more than one political tradition: a 2011 analysis described "strategic defectors" from the Conservatives and "core loyalists" who were more working-class and more likely to come from Labour-voting families, and YouGov said in 2011 that UKIP was benefiting from protest votes from people unhappy with government but not wanting Labour. (theguardian.com) But "incredibly diverse" overstates the breadth of the party's base; survey work on UKIP supporters found a very distinctive profile, especially older, white, socially conservative, and less-educated voters. (natcen.ac.uk) Sources: The Guardian, "Labour, fear Ukip"; YouGov, "Other parties hit 14%"; NatCen, British Social Attitudes 32, "A Revolt on The Right?".
From article
It would be silly to say that – you could never, ever represent the whole country – and since I was elected to the European Parliament I’ve always said that I’m not going to represent the whole constituency (and remember it’s vast – six million voters), I’m there to represent the people who voted for me and to use that position to try to persuade others that we are actually right.
But the interesting thing about [the UK Independence Party] is that it attracts an incredibly diverse range of people. We pick up what I would call ‘patriotic Old Labour’, we pick up classical liberals who hate the big state and believe in individual freedom and we pick up traditional Tories who believe in the country. And don’t forget that when we started [in 1993], only about six of us in the country believed in this.
Sources opened+ 68 search hits considered
| [1] | yougov.co.uk |
| [2] | theguardian.com |
| [3] | natcen.ac.uk |