Advance UK

Last updated

Advance UK
Leader Ben Habib
FoundersChristian Russell, Richard J. Shaw, Mohammad Shoaib Sohail [1]
Founded30 June 2025
Split from Reform UK
Headquarters69-73 Theobalds Road, London, England, WC1X 8TA [2]
Membership (September 2025)32,000 [3]
Political position Far-right [4] [5]
SloganOur Future Together
House of Commons
0 / 650
Councillors
0 / 18,645
Website
https://www.advanceuk.org.uk/

Advance UK (formerly known as the Integrity Party) is a British far-right [5] [4] political party led by Ben Habib, the former Deputy Leader of Reform UK. The party was launched in its current form in 2025, following Habib's departure from Reform UK in November 2024 due to internal disagreements and a reported fallout with Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf.

Contents

History

Pre-registration

Ben Habib, who had been deputy leader of Reform UK fell out with Nigel Farage in 2024 when he was removed as deputy leader of Reform. [6] [7] In response, Habib stated his intention to form a party to the right of Reform. [7]

In April 2025, Habib announced he would be taking over the Integrity Party, which had been created by Christian Russell and Richard J. Shaw in 2024. [8] Habib stated that he intended to make sure the party was properly set up and organised before applying to the Electoral Commission for registration. [8] On 30 June 2025, Habib announced that he had launched a new political party, Advance UK, hoping to reach 30,000 members. [7] The party has the same legal identity as the Integrity Party, with the limited company previously named as the Integrity Party having been renamed as the Advance UK Party Limited. [5] The party's launch coincided with the announcement of the far-right pressure group Restore Britain, an organisation set up by another former Reform UK member, independent MP Rupert Lowe.

Richard Inman, an event organiser for prominent far-right [9] [10] activist Tommy Robinson, and former member of UKIP's National Executive Committee, announced on 4 July 2025, that he was joining Advance UK. [11] Robinson himself announced he would be joining the party early August, posting a video endorsing Advance, recorded earlier on as he had left the country following criminal accusations he committeed an alleged assault in late July. [12] [13] By September 2025, Robinson had joined the organisation. [14]

In August 2025, Elon Musk declared his support for Advance UK, stating "Advance UK will actually drive change. Farage is weak sauce who will do nothing", [15] and Habib himself claimed that Musk had urged him to set up a party earlier in 2025. [16] Advance advocates for the UK's "Christian constitution," freedom of speech and rejection of supra-national institutions including the UN, WHO and WEF. [17]

Later that month, Advance UK announced that four former parliamentary candidates for Reform were defecting, along with one former branch chair. [18]

At Tommy Robinson's 'Unite the Kingdom' rally, held in London on 13 September 2025, Advance were listed as one of the sponsors for the event. [14] [19] Habib was one of the speakers at the rally, which saw an estimated turnout of between 110,000 and 150,000. [20] [21] Speaking before the rally, Habib told The Observer there was no longer a division between right and left in UK politics, but between "those who believe in global principles and so-called liberalism, and those who actually believe in a nation state, borders and sovereignty". [14]

Registration and launch

On 6 September 2025, Habib claimed that Advance had reached their target of 30,000 members. Following this, he applied for registration as a party with the Electoral Commission. [22]

The party was due to hold an official launch event at the Crowne-Plaza Hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne on 27 September.

However, following online criticism, the hotel management cancelled the booking on "health and safety grounds", according to Newcastle City Council. [23] Habib told supporters on Twitter the party would still launch in Newcastle. [24]

Ideology and policy

The party has been described by Sean O'Grady in The Independent as amongst the far-right fringe parties and 'quite possibly' extremist. [5] It has also been labelled as far-right in articles from The Guardian , [4] Nation.Cymru , [25] the Evening Standard, [26] HuffPost,, [27] The London Economic , [28] and The National , [29] while the Daily Mirror described it as 'hard-right'. [30] The Spectator and the The Telegraph have labelled it as 'right-wing'. [31] [32]

In the Financial Times , Anna Gross wrote that Habib was working to prevent Nigel Farage from winning next UK general election by taking votes from those who consider Farage too moderate, and said that Advance UK was more hardline than Reform UK. [6] Habib himself said "Any support we get must be at the expense of other parties.” Further, Alex Kane of The Irish News suggests Advance is in "danger of becoming an anti-Farage party rather than a genuine alternative to Reform." [33]

The party professes principles such as national sovereignty, freedom of speech, democracy, and equality before the law. [7] [17]

In April 2025, Habib announced that the then Integrity Party would remove all of the quangos created by Tony Blair, and enact "Liz Truss style" tax-cuts. [8]

Habib indicated support for Jim Allister in the News Letter (having previously signed the Reform UK–TUV alliance), and "hopes anything his new party does in Northern Ireland will be with the TUV". He also asserted that "Farage doesn't stand" for the Acts of Union 1800. [34]

Patrick English, director of political analytics at YouGov, said Advance UK "certainly might have the potential to be disruptive but they'll need to work very hard to find people capable of fronting it". [18]

Structure

The party plans to create a 'college' of representatives that will vote for proposed policies, and is intended to guide the party's board of directors and the executive, consisting of the party leaders. [7] [5] The arrangement has been described by Sean O'Grady in The Independent as complicated and likely to lead to internal friction. [5]

Among the list of announced members of the college include Katie Waissel and Howard Cox. [16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ADVANCE UK PARTY LIMITED people - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
  2. ↑ "ADVANCE UK PARTY LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  3. ↑ Pope Felix (15 September 2025). "What will Tommy Robinson do next?". UnHerd. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  4. 1 2 3 Grierson, Jamie (15 September 2025). "Who were the key figures at the Unite the Kingdom rally in London?". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 O'Grady, Sean (30 June 2025). "How does Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain differ from Reform UK?". The Independent. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
  6. 1 2 Gross, Anna (29 August 2025). "Can a UK party backed by Elon Musk outflank Nigel Farage on the right?". The Financial Times. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Self, Josh (30 June 2025). "Ex-Reform deputy launches new party to rival Nigel Farage". Politics.co.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
  8. 1 2 3 Hazell, Will (24 April 2025). "The new right-wing party that wants to put Farage's Reform out of business". The i Paper. Retrieved 24 April 2025.
  9. ↑ Aikman, Tom (16 April 2025). "Tommy Robinson loses appeal against prison sentence". BBC News. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  10. ↑ Sherwood, Harriet; Quinn, Ben (1 November 2024). "He's like a gangster': How Tommy Robinson became leader of Britain's far right". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  11. ↑ "Top 'Tommy Robinson' organiser joins Ben Habib's Advance UK". Searchlight. 4 July 2025. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  12. ↑ Peters, Tony (3 August 2025). "Tommy Robinson joins Ben Habib's Advance UK | Searchlight" . Retrieved 3 August 2025.
  13. ↑ Frayne, James (4 August 2025). "Tommy Robinson is the perfect enemy for Nigel Farage" . The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  14. 1 2 3 "Prepare for revolution now, Elon Musk tells London rally as police come under attack". The Observer. 14 September 2025. Retrieved 14 September 2025.
  15. ↑ "Elon Musk launches fresh attack on 'weak' Nigel Farage". The Independent. 26 August 2025. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  16. 1 2 Holl-Allen, Genevieve (27 August 2025). "Revealed: Elon Musk urged Farage rival to set up new party". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235. Archived from the original on 27 August 2025. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  17. 1 2 "'Weak sauce': Elon Musk reignites public spat with Nigel Farage". euronews. 27 August 2025. Retrieved 28 August 2025.
  18. 1 2 Gross, Anna (29 August 2025). "Can a UK party backed by Elon Musk outflank Nigel Farage on the right?". Financial Times. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  19. ↑ "Britain's Biggest Far-Right Protest: More than 100,000 attend Tommy Robinson's Unite The Kingdom Rally". Hope Not Hate. 13 September 2025. Retrieved 14 September 2025.
  20. ↑ "Dozens of officers injured as up to 150,000 join Tommy Robinson rally". BBC News. 13 September 2025. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  21. ↑ "Elon Musk tells Tommy Robinson protest 'violence is coming' in call for change in UK government". The Independent. 13 September 2025. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  22. ↑ "Current applications to update party registrations | Electoral Commission". www.electoralcommission.org.uk. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  23. ↑ "'Advance UK 'will still launch' despite hotel block'". BBC News . 25 September 2025. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
  24. ↑ "Hotel cancels launch event for Tommy Robinson-backed political party". The Independent. 24 September 2025. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  25. ↑ Mansfield, Mark (14 August 2025). "Far right party linked to 'Tommy Robinson' allowed to promote itself at Welsh Show". Nation.Cymru. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
  26. ↑ Howe, Megan (27 August 2025). "Elon Musk backs Tommy Robinson and blasts Nigel Farage as Reform pledges deportations". The Standard. Retrieved 28 August 2025.
  27. ↑ "Elon Musk Re-Ignites Farage Feud With Attack On His Mass Deportation Plan". HuffPost UK. 27 August 2025. Archived from the original on 27 August 2025. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  28. ↑ Herbert, Charlie (27 August 2025). "Musk backs Robinson as he lashes out at Farage in 'weak sauce' rant". The London Economic. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  29. ↑ https://www.thenational.scot/news/25493022.newcastle-hotel-cancels-launch-event-new-far-right-party/
  30. ↑ "Shameless Musk shows support for Tommy Robinson after reigniting Farage feud". The Mirror. 27 August 2025. Retrieved 28 August 2025.
  31. ↑ "Can these Farage rivals' start-ups hurt Reform?". The Spectator. 1 July 2025. Retrieved 3 September 2025.
  32. ↑ Telegraph Reporters (24 September 2025). "'Hotel owned by Labour council cancels new Right-wing party's event'". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  33. ↑ Kane, Alex (19 September 2025). "Alex Kane: Will Nigel Farage get lucky and complete the revolution?". The Irish News. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  34. ↑ "Former Reform chief Ben Habib sets up new party to take on Nigel Farage - with endorsement from Elon Musk". Belfast News Letter. 1 July 2025. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
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