Reclaim Party | |
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Leader | Laurence Fox |
Founders |
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Founded | October 2020 |
Preceded by | Brexit Express |
Headquarters | Carlyle House 235 Vauxhall Bridge Road London SW1V 1EJ |
Ideology | Right-wing populism British nationalism |
Political position | Right-wing [1] to far-right |
Website | |
reclaimparty | |
The Reclaim Party is a right-wing populist [2] political party in the United Kingdom. It was launched in 2020 by English political activist and actor Laurence Fox, with all of its funding from a single donor, Jeremy Hosking. [3] [4] It does not solicit donations or charge membership fees.
The party was first registered on 13 March 2019 by Jeremy Hosking as Brexit Express. [5] [6]
In September 2020, Fox attracted funding for a new political party, provisionally called Reclaim, [7] [8] and dubbed "UKIP for culture". [9] [7] In October 2020, the party changed its leader from Jeremy Hosking to Laurence Fox. [10] It emerged in the same month that the party name had yet to be successfully registered with the Electoral Commission as there was a naming conflict with the "Reclaim Project" of Manchester, an established charity giving opportunities to working-class children. [11] In February 2021, the party changed its registered name from Brexit Express to the Reclaim Party. [12] [13]
In December 2021, newspapers reported that Hosking would continue to fund the Reclaim Party. [14]
MP Andrew Bridgen was expelled from the Conservative Party in January 2023 for tweeting "As one consultant cardiologist said to me, [the COVID-19 vaccines are] the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust", [15] repeating COVID conspiracy claims and for breaching lobbying rules. [16] In May 2023, he joined Reclaim, becoming the party's first MP. [17] He resigned from the party in December 2023. [18]
On 12 June 2023, Reform UK and the Reclaim Party announced a mutual co-operation agreement for the upcoming by-elections, whereby Reform UK would stand in Mid Bedfordshire and Reclaim would stand in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. [19] Both parties lost all by-elections and lost their deposits, with Dave Kent (Reform) getting the highest support at 3.7% in Selby and Ainsty.
The party states a sovereigntist, anti- woke , and anti-gender outlook in its manifesto, as well as a lack of belief that there is a climate crisis. [20]
In March 2021, Fox announced he would stand in the London mayoral elections, in order to "fight against extreme political correctness" and to "end the Met's obsession with diversity and inclusivity". [21] [22] His candidacy was endorsed by Reform UK, who stood aside for him in the election, and by Nigel Farage. [23] The major source of Fox's campaign funds was Brexit backer Jeremy Hosking, [24] who, in the first quarter of 2021, gave the Reclaim Party more than £1,000,000 in cash and services. [25]
In the mayoral election, Fox finished in sixth place with 47,634 votes (1.9 per cent), losing his £10,000 election deposit. [26] [27]
The party stood one candidate, Leo Kearse, in Glasgow Pollok for the 2021 Scottish Parliament election; he received 114 votes (0.3 per cent), coming in eighth place on the constituency list. [28]
Martin Daubney, deputy leader of the party from 2021 until August 2022, [29] was the party's candidate in the 2021 North Shropshire by-election. [30] Daubney is a former Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2019 to 2020, and a former journalist and editor. He finished seventh with 375 votes (0.98 per cent), losing his deposit. [31]
During the by-election campaign, a Market Drayton town councillor defected to Reclaim, becoming the party's first representative in UK local government, [32] [33] [34] but resigned as a councillor less than a year later. [35]
In June 2023, Fox announced his intention to contest the 2023 Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election. [36] Fox received 2.3% of the vote, finishing fourth and losing his deposit. The winner was Conservative candidate Steve Tuckwell. [37]
In the 2024 general election, Reclaim announced it would donate £5,000 to each candidate standing for re-election from other parties who agreed to a four-point culture-based pledge: leaving the European Court of Human Rights, repealing the Human Rights Act, banning all forms of gender reassignment for children and reforming the Equality Act to eliminate sex- and race-based discrimination. Despite Conservative Party advice not to accept the money, four of its MPs did. [38] [39] Prior to the election, Reclaim had stated it would field its own candidates. [40]
A few days before the election, Reclaim endorsed Reform UK. [41]
The four Conservative MPs, Andrea Jenkyns, Brendan Clarke-Smith, Marco Longhi and Karl McCartney, who had accepted the donation in exchange for backing Reclaim’s "four-point commitment to culture", all lost their seats.
We will field candidates at the next General Election – both to directly take seats and to actively target and unseat MPs who've sold Britain down the river.