Chairman Jamie Ross-McKenzie Membership 3,500 (30 May 2015) | Deputy Chairman Katie Fanning | |
Ideology Hard Euroscepticism
Right-wing populism
Economic liberalism
Conservatism
British unionism | ||
Young Independence (YI) is the youth wing of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and represents all UKIP members under the age of 30.
Contents
History
The wing was formed during the 2007 annual UKIP conference by the then National Executive Committee member Delroy Young. YI was formed to encompass all UKIP members aged thirty-five and under, but is now for those under the age of thirty as the total number of young people in UKIP has grown. A referendum was held during May 2015 to see if the upper age should be lowered from 30 to 25, but this was rejected by 74.2% to 25.8%. With increasing membership, YI started to move towards forming student organisations. However, it faced heavy opposition from the National Union of Students.
Organisation
Young Independence is run by a council of elected members and regional/county chairpersons who are usually elected at the annual UKIP Spring Conference. It has regional chairpersons elected by the membership to oversee its county or regional affairs. It has Branch Chairmen, who represent Young Independence at all local branch events.
UKIP Students
In April 2014, the National Union of Students passed a motion at its National Conference to officially oppose UKIP. In response, on 1 August, UKIP's universities officer, Joseph Jenkins, announced the formation of UKIP Students, a branch of Young Independence dedicated to expanding UKIP's presence in universities, colleges and schools. UKIP Students has its own committee.
Controversies
In 2013, the YI chairman Olly Neville was fired by the party, reportedly for supporting same-sex marriage. YI's treasurer Allrik Birch, election officer Gareth Shanks, Yorkshire chairman Arnie Craven, and the Yorkshire deputy chairwoman Christina Annesley resigned in protest. Other party members have come out in support of same-sex marriage, however, such as the chairman and prospective Parliamentary candidate in Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, Nathan Garbutt, questioning whether Neville really was removed for supporting the issue at hand: "if he had been removed for favouring gay marriage, the question stands; ‘Why have I not been removed too?’".
Another incident came a few days later when the YI Northwest chairman and prospective Parliamentary candidate for Chester Richard Lowe was 'forced to quit' because of a lack of confidence from the branch over his support for same-sex marriage and other views that 'clashed with UKIP policy'.
During the first UKIP leadership election in 2016, YI members were accused of body shaming and attacking one of the candidates, Lisa Duffy. The attacks supposedly took place in the YI Faculty Facebook group, a closed group for members. This group was shut down after Huffington Post revealed racism and homophobic attacks also occurring on the page.