Week in Review: UKIP & Green Party Conferences

This week saw the UK Independence Party hold their annual party conference in Doncaster, where the focus appeared to once again be on convincing the general public to vote the UK out of the European Union in the upcoming referendum. UKIP leader Nigel Farage said that the referendum was the time to put country before party, and praised the unity shown by anti-EU groups who have formed the group leave.eu to campaign together for a UK exit. This once again raised the question whether or not UKIP is indeed a political party or rather a pressure group campaigning on a single issue. While unity was the idea that UKIP tried to promote during their conference, it seemed that perhaps it was lacking within the party as UKIP’s only MP Douglas Carswell was involved in a heated exchange with party donor Arron Banks; this was after Banks suggested that Carswell could be deselected if he supported Business For Britain, a group which has refused to commit to the idea of a UK exit until the conclusion of David Cameron’s negotiations with Europe.

The Green Party also held their party conference this week in Bournemouth, where they expressed their desire to change the electoral system used for general elections in the UK, after the party received over 1.1 million votes but due to the nature of the first past the post system only secured one seat in the House of Commons. Green Party leader Natalie Bennett also stressed that climate change must be at the centre of every policy made, holding true to the beliefs on which the party was founded.

This was a brief summary of the week's events surrounding this week's party conferences. It was taken from the TEN: Politics YouTube show, Week in Review.