When you think of politics, a few flashes of colour probably cross your mind – the red rose of Labour, Tory blue, or the vibrant yellow of the Lib Dems. These major parties always win a significant chunk of the popular vote in both general and local elections, as well as most of the seats. The main outlier in recent years is Reform Party UK Ltd. It was founded only in 2018, yet has grown exponentially in recent years – it won five seats in parliament and received the third-highest vote share in this year’s general election. It’s even been polling higher than Labour in recent weeks.
And while several other parties and independents also hoping to challenge this status quo have found success in local elections, so far most smaller ones have faced difficulty making an impact on the national level.
The Yorkshire Party: struggling for a breakthrough
One example is the regionalist Yorkshire Party, which supports further devolution for the county as one of its keystone policies.
Their argument is that ‘God’s own country’ deserves its own assembly. After all, its population is similar to that of Scotland – roughly 5.4 million – and its economy is about twice the size of Wales’s; and both of these have parliaments.
As co-leader Bob Buxton told Yorkshire Bylines, “Currently we have lip-service, lightweight devolution. Mayors have very little funding and everything has to be approved by Westminster first.
“People can see we’re being ripped off on transport and education – the government spends £2,600 less per person here than in London and Scotland, which adds up to £14bn less a year.
“If Yorkshire wants a fair deal, it needs to vote for itself. Our job is to explain to people why [a regional assembly] is so important. Labour isn’t the solution they thought it was, so we need that regional focus.”
He adds that in general election campaigns, they receive coverage from local news but little focus from national media. “We do better in mayoral and council elections, as well as by-elections for Westminster. But it’s still an unfair system – mayoral elections alone cost £9,000 to stand in.”
The Yorkshire Party got more votes than it anticipated in the last local elections – Buxton told us that they won almost 500 votes in seats it had never stood in before. It also came third in the first round of the 2022 South Yorkshire mayoral election with 13.4% and currently holds three seats on East Riding County Council.
Its vote share has remained relatively stable across past general elections as well, hovering between 1% and 3% in each seat they stood in, and it was the sixth-most voted-for party in England in 2017 and 2019. However, it fell to ninth place in 2024, and all 27 candidates who stood for the party lost their deposits.
Still, the Yorkshire Party is positive about the future, with Buxton declaring, “The next election will be a high tide for us. It’s the overcentralised system people need to vote against”.
Social Democratic Party: leaping onto the populist bandwagon
Another minor party vying to increase its appeal is the populist and conspicuously ‘anti-woke’ Social Democratic Party (SDP), which blends ‘left-leaning’ economic policies with a heavy dose of hard-right conservatism.
Leader William Clouston says, “These combinations are the hidden gap in British politics”.
“Last year’s general election results showed very encouraging, steady growth. By some metrics, we’re the fastest-growing party in the country. Leeds is definitely a stronghold for us and our message has particular resonance in parts of the ‘red wall’, like the Doncaster/Barnsley/Rotherham triangle.”
However, it could be argued that that some of the party’s policies are ‘extreme’ – such as advocating a withdrawal from the European Court of Human Rights.
In the most recent local elections, the SDP took a seat from Labour on Leeds City Council, bringing their total up to three, and came fifth in South Yorkshire’s mayoral election. Now their sights are set on other seats in Leeds, as well as across the country.
“It’s always a challenge to get the message across for a resurgent party, as the ‘Big Five’ parties have more money, more media coverage and bigger teams.” Out of the 122 candidates they fielded in July, only two (in Leeds South and Doncaster North) retained their deposits by receiving more than 5% of votes.
Despite this, their determined group of campaigners and growing number of candidates, combined with a degree of confidence about their offer, leaves Clouston’s party sanguine about future electoral gains.
Local elections allow a ‘free hit’ at national governments
Professor Charles Pattie, a politics lecturer at the University of Sheffield, told us the idea that smaller parties seem to do better at local elections than general elections can be explained by ‘second order election theory’.
“There’s a well-established tendency for people who vote in ‘second order’ – less important – elections such as local and formerly EU Parliament elections to vote for minor parties which they probably wouldn’t vote for when it comes to general elections which might influence who becomes the national government.
“As the bodies being elected are seen as less important, some voters use such elections to have a ‘free hit’ at the national government, to express their frustration with that government but without having to risk hanging the government itself as it isn’t up for election.
“So, in second order contests, people who are a bit annoyed with the government might decide to vote for one of its rivals, or even for a minor party as a way of sending a message. That’s why the Brexit Party did much better in the 2019 EU Parliament election than it did in either the 2017 or 2019 UK general elections.”
Some minor parties have tasted victory only to fall short at the next electoral test. A key example was the George Galloway-fronted Workers Party winning the 2024 Rochdale by-election, only to lose it in the general election a few months later. This could be seen as simply a protest vote based on the temperature of that particular political moment.
Growth of regionalism in the UK
It’s not as if regionalism isn’t a vote-winner elsewhere in the UK. The Scottish National Party (SNP) has been the dominant force in Scottish politics for nearly 20 years, while western Wales has become a stronghold for Plaid Cymru.
Even though the Yorkshire Party isn’t seeking independence, they’re one of only four British members of the European Free Alliance of regionalist, separatist and minority-interest parties within Europe alongside the SNP and Plaid Cymru. Other members include parties campaigning for Catalonian independence and those seeking more autonomy for the Belgian region of Flanders.
Northern Ireland has several unique parties like the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin, in a power-sharing relationship between nationalists and unionists mandated by the Good Friday Agreement.
A push away from Westminster
Dr Dexter Govan of The Constitution Society explained to Yorkshire Bylines that the UK’s current system of devolution consists of a mix of national assemblies, mayoral authorities and smaller regional deals.
“Since 1997 there’s been a push away from Westminster. Development of devolution has been sporadic and came about because of political realities, so doesn’t necessarily have a single ‘architect’.
“Broadly, devolution is popular – soon we might expect Scottish Parliament elections to consistently becomemore popular than Westminster elections – and is very much embedded in the constitution.
“But the mayoral deals have not always been popular and have indeed been voted down in some places.” The most notable defeat was in 2004, when a referendum proposing a regional assembly in the North East was rejected by nearly 78% of voters.
Dr Govan suggests the next stage of devolution would be complete coverage of mayoral deals across all of England but warns this approach may end up with a large number of people living in “bits between” devolved areas.
This is currently the case in East Yorkshire, which lacks a combined authority and directly elected mayor that North, South and West Yorkshire all have, though a proposal to grant them their own mayor is due to be implemented this May. Voters might then view the Yorkshire Party’s call for a regional assembly as unnecessary, so they’ll have to work hard to convince them otherwise.
Hurdles in the path towards pluralism
It would seem that the most apparent barrier preventing further success for minor parties is the first-past-the-post voting system. Most parties other than Labour and the Conservatives advocate for electoral reform such as implementing proportional representation as a central tenet of their platforms, perhaps to give themselves a better chance to win seats.
However, there are small special-interest parties that have managed to gain widespread recognition despite this. We’ve all heard of the Monster Raving Loony Party, for example, even if it’s unlikely to win with its satirical policies! More significantly, the Green Party started out as a fringe environmentalist movement but has now become a prominent political force.
The UK seems to be on the verge of an unprecedented era of pluralism, with countless parties eager to capitalise on voters’ appetite for change. But it may take several elections for them to clear the first hurdle – making people feel comfortable about taking that step.
