Pardon the ignorant question, but what are they trying to make the UK independent from? The UK???
It was a Brexit thing.
They’re now called the Reform Party 
It’s the first iteration of what is now the Reform party, was also the Brexit party. Independence from the EU, and nowadays more focused on invading migrants, (who come via the EU)
Thanks! Makes sense now.
And there are other split-offs from what I would see as the “Stop the world, I want to get off” tendency. There’s one called the Heritage Party that’s put up a slate for the London Assembly elections this week (no chance) that is explicitly a breakaway from ReformUK, and other groupuscules and ego-trippers fishing in the same pond (the “Social Democratic Party” label seems to have been taken over by such, not to mention Laurence Fox and his fan club, who couldn’t even recognise a whelk stall, let alone run one).
Reform might perhaps pick up one of the London-wide (proportional representation) seats, but they’re more likely just going to be spoiling the Tory vote.
Depending on when the election is held and how bad the public perception of the Tories is, I wonder if they might lose some seats to Reform in Parliament too if there’s enough of a local right-wing defection to the fringe.
That kind of depends, I think there’s been a total of one elected kipper MP in all their time, the first past the post system doesn’t work very well for them at all. I know the tories are bad, but I don’t think the kipper voters make up for the likes of libdem or labour taking the votes.
I’d be surprised if any kipper MP is voted in again (in whatever fragment of that lot their name is nowadays, reform, reclaim, brexit, whatever).
How are they connected to the People’s Front of Judea?
For those who prefer a British style of schadenfreude: former PM and perpetual corrupt incompetent Boris Johnson, who brought in the requirement to present photo ID in order to vote, was turned away from the polls today because he forgot his photo ID.
He did manage to vote later but still, this is hilarious.
Oh, I fucking LOVE that.
Splitters!
And it looks as though the results will be as bad for the Tories as presaged. A 26% swing against them in the parliamentary by-election in Blackpool, and in the council elections declared so far, half of the seats they were defending have been lost - but more results will come in during the day and over the weekend.
And in the Department of Wouldn’t You Just Know It:
The wife observes: on election day (and possibly bye-bye Rishi), Boris Johnson manages to make the headlines with his jovial buffoon brand. Just fancy.
Odds that this was entirely deliberate?
j
I had considered it. He often leavens his inadvertent idiocy with deliberate idiocy.
A party spokesman also had to confirm that yes, he did vote Conservative in the end.
Yes, speculation was that he couldn’t even do that.
How does the party spokesperson (a/k/a Mouth of Sunak) know that? Because Boris told him? Sure, I trust Boris….
He used to deliberately muss his hair up before going before the cameras, playing up the goofy common man notion that he was fond of peddling. There were also rumours that getting stuck on the zipline was preplanned.
Hadn’t even thought about the ID thing being deliberate, but it makes sense. He wouldn’t be concerned about how hypocritical it makes him look if it gets him some headlines. Apparently Tom Hunt, the MP from Ipswich, only realized last night that he didn’t have the necessary ID either and put out a plea for someone to help him with a proxy vote.
Good old Mr Rhyming Slang.
Yeah. What a Jodrell.
The results are bad for the Tories, if not quite so catastrophic as the opinion polls suggested. But looks as though there’s no great momentum to unseat Sunak before the general election.