Leader Adam Brown Founded 2008 | Party chairman Simon Walmsley Youth wing Libertarian Youth | |
Headquarters Gemini House, 136–140 Old Shoreham Road, BN3 7BD Brighton Ideology Libertarianism,
Minarchism,
Classical liberalism,
Euroscepticism | ||
The Libertarian Party, also known as the Libertarian Party UK (or LPUK), is a libertarian political party in the United Kingdom. The party describes itself as "largely minarchist in scope".
Contents
History
The party was founded on 1 January 2008 under the leadership of Patrick Vessey who registered the name with the Electoral Commission on 21 November 2007. Annual accounts held by the Electoral Commission, show that the party claimed to have 314 members at the end of 2008, and a net annual income of £3,395. By December 2009, the party claimed 500 members. In May 2008, the Daily Telegraph leader writer, Alex Singleton, explained why the founders would have been better advised to set up a pressure group rather than a party. Singleton believed the new party would reduce the influence of libertarianism.
On 17 September 2008, Vessey resigned as party leader and was replaced by Ian Parker-Joseph, an IT consultant. Interviewed before the 2010 elections, Parker-Joseph claimed many policies which interfered with personal liberty were initiated by IT companies who invited ministers to their conferences The party claimed a membership of 1000 and hoped, in the wake of the MP expenses scandal, "to establish themselves in the media landscape with a couple of robust performances". He said the party wanted much smaller government and would initially cut taxation to 10% before removing it altogether. It could remove many layers of bureaucracy from the NHS to make it as efficient as private industry.
In the 2009 local elections, Andrew Hunt came bottom in Cambridgeshire, Wisbech South, with 140 votes. In the United Kingdom local elections, 2010 Stuart Heal came bottom in Manchester City Council, Miles Platting and Newton Heath ward.
The party participated in the United Kingdom general election, 2010. Nic Coome stood in Devizes, coming last with 141 votes (0.3%), and Martin Cullip in Sutton and Cheam, coming second last with 41 votes. On 28 November 2010, Andrew Withers was elected as party leader. In the May 2011 local elections, Withers was elected as an independent parish councillor for Clevedon Walton ward in North Somerset, resigning around March 2012.
Following an internal ballot on 15 August 2015, party members elected Adam Brown as the party leader. Brown had previously been a councillor in Crawley.
Policies and views
By default of its name and purpose, the Libertarian Party offers a broad libertarian platform which questions the role of the state in contemporary British society and advocates an appeal to democratic reform in the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, the party aims to be pragmatic and realistic in its policy approach rather than purely ideological or idealist. Thus, these perspectives manifest themselves in policies such as cutting taxation, protecting free markets, reducing "red tape" and bureaucracy and democratic constitutional reform for the United Kingdom.
The Libertarian Party is eurosceptic, advocating a policy of withdrawal from the European Union, argued to be a bureaucratic burden on Britain's national interest. It does not contest European Elections as a result.
Despite seeking a reduction in the size of the state, the party is committed to the upholding of state-funded free healthcare, mental health services and care for the elderly in the United Kingdom; nonetheless, it advocates that a reform and decentralisation of the NHS is necessary.