Young Independence

Young Independence
Chairman	Joe Jenkins
Founded	6 October 2007
Membership	3,500 [1] (30 May 2015)
Ideology	Euroscepticism[2][3] Right-wing populism[4] Economic liberalism[3] Conservatism[3] British unionism[5]
Mother party	UK Independence Party
Website
http://www.youngindependence.org.uk

Young Independence (YI) is the youth wing of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and represents all UKIP members under the age of 30.^[6]

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,^[7] 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.^[8]

On 1 June 2015, it was announced that Joe Jenkins, the former UKIP students officer, had been elected as the next chairman, with 121 of the 162 votes cast.

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 Chairman, who represent Young Independence at all local branch events.

Leadership

Current ^[9]

• National chairman: Joe Jenkins ^[10]
• Deputy National chairman: Jamie Ross McKenzie ^[11]
• National secretary: Oliver Corbishley
• National treasurer: Jack Smith
• UKIP Students Chair: Sarah Curtis
• Communications officer: Kieran Warren
• Events officer: Matthew Mackinnon

Leadership history
2007–08: Wayne Harling
2008–10: Michael Heaver
2010–12: Harry Aldridge
2012–13: Olly Neville
2013–14: Rob Comley
^[12] 2014-15: Jack Duffin
2015- : Joe Jenkins

UKIP Students

In April 2014, the National Union of Students passed a motion at its National Conference to officially oppose UKIP.^[13] 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.

• UKIP Students chairman: Sarah Curtis^[14]
• Universities officer: Thomas Collins
• Schools officer: Helen Smith

Controversies

In 2013, the YI chairman Olly Neville was fired by the party, reportedly for supporting same-sex marriage.^[15] YI's treasurer Allrik Birch, election officer Gareth Shanks, Yorkshire chairman Arnie Craven, and the Yorkshire deputy chairwoman Christina Annesley resigned in protest.^[16] 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?’".^[17]

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'.^[18]

Footnotes

External links

• Official website
• Official Twitter