What is it about?
UKIP helped pile the pressure on David Cameron to call the EU referendum but it's all too easy to forget that it was the Conservatives, under Hague, IDS and Howard, that helped create the conditions for UKIP by fusing - in populist fashion - criticisms of an elite that had let Brussels get too powerful and immigration get too high. By trying, at least initially to turn down the volume on both issues, Cameron created a vacuum which UKIP and Nigel Farage duly filled - and the genie was out of the bottle.
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Why is it important?
This article shows how the referendum might not have happened without UKIP but also how UKIP might not have happened without the Conservative Party. Populism and Euroscepticism don't always have to originate with niche parties; they can arise from the mainstream.
Perspectives
Centre-right parties can be pretty populist even though they defend the interests of the establishment. But, as the Conservatives have found, playing fire can get you burnt.
Professor Tim Bale
Queen Mary University of London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Who leads and who follows? The symbiotic relationship between UKIP and the Conservatives – and populism and Euroscepticism, Politics, February 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0263395718754718.
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