EUPopLink Country report - United Kingdom [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

This country report provides a summary of the UK-EU relationship since the UK’s entry in 1973. The report explores populist actors in the United Kingdom, with an emphasis on these actors in the period since the global financial crisis in 2008. The report notes that there have been both left and right populist parties active in the UK in this period. It explores key populist actors (George Galloway, Jeremy Corbyn, Nigel Farage) and parties including the Respect Party, UKIP, the Brexit Party, and Reform UK. It examines the basis of these party’s euroscepticism, their broader positions on the UK-EU relationship, and how they have mobilised populism and populist ideas. It finds that populist Eurosceptic parties belonging to the Populist Radical Right (PRR) have achieved the most success and influence in the UK context. The report also considers the response of the UK’s traditional largest political parties (the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, and the Liberal Democrats) to the rise of Euroscepticism in the UK.