Vote splitting: how the British right loses

Recently, at the height of the reinvigorated British culture wars, several more political parties have surfaced to the fill the void in which the Conservative Party are currently lacking.

Those being actor Laurence Fox’s yet to be named party, and Brexit Alliance London Assembly member David Kurten’s Heritage Party. The former has been announced to be fighting back in the ‘culture wars’, while the latter has taken a more socially conservative approach on political hot potatoes like family and nation.

If this sounds at all familiar, that’s because it is. Back in late 2017, after the then UKIP conference led to the election to the not so charismatic Henry Bolton taking charge, a whole slew of parties by the losers in that contest took place. Anne Marie Waters who came second started the anti-Islam populist party For Britain, John Rees-Evans started the libertarian Eurosceptic party Democrats & Veterans and Bolton himself after being ousted from UKIP following a scandal surrounding his racist girlfriend, started the One Nation party. Admittedly, none of them have been hugely successful, even if For Britain has gained some council seats and has managed to gain some press attention on occasion. On a side note, Kurten also stood in that contest and came third.