The UK, unlike the USA, has a large number of significant minor parties as well as the three main national parties. While they are unlikely to win Westminster elections, they are important in several ways and often play a role in shaping the political agenda.

During a televised debate in the 2015 general election campaign, seven parties participated. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the Green Party, two of these smaller parties, have gained prominence by advocating for specific issues. They do not anticipate winning enough seats to lead a government but aim to pressure larger parties to consider their agenda. These parties have operated more as advocacy groups than traditional political entities. The remaining smaller parties have a regional focus. Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Nationalist Party, was founded in 1925 and officially supports Welsh independence within the EU, although its main focus has been on preserving the Welsh language and culture. Plaid Cymru has never held more than four MPs in Westminster (in 2015, it had three) but has been more successful in the National Assembly for Wales. In 2007, Plaid Cymru became the Assembly's second-largest party and formed a coalition government with Labour until slipping to third place following the 2011 election.

However in 2017 Theresa May refused to take part in TV debates and in 2019  Johnson would only debate with Jeremy Corbyn. So so far the 2015 all party debates is a one off

Who are the DUP?

Founded by the late Ian Paisley in 1971, at the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles, and now led by Arlene Foster, the DUP is the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and is currently the fifth-largest party in the Commons - with ten MPs. The DUP nominally governs Northern Ireland with its republican rivals Sinn Fein as part of a power-sharing deal set out in the Good Friday Peace Agreement.

However, discord between the two parties means the Stormont Assembly led to a suspension of government in N Ireland form 2017 to 2020 .The DUP emerged as a force to be reckoned with in Westminster in the wake of the 2017 general election. The result left the then prime minister Theresa May politically weakened and unable to command a majority in Parliament, turning the DUP’s ten MPs into kingmakers in a “confidence and supply” agreement to prop up the Government. 

This is a position its members have leveraged to maximum effect, exercising their effective veto over the government’s Brexit negotiations to ensure there is no deal that could cut off Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. They also secured 3 billion in extra spending for N Ireland.

Domestic issues: The DUP has long opposed and voted against introducing same-sex marriage and more liberal abortion laws to the province.

Its 2017 manifesto also included retaining the “triple lock” on pensions, cutting VAT for tourism businesses, abolishing air passenger duty and reviewing the price of ferries between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

The DUP was also the only major political group in Northern Ireland to oppose the Good Friday Agreement – before finally entering into a power-sharing government in 2007.

Brexit: Although Northern Ireland voted Remain by a majority of 56% to 44%, the DUP campaigned  for Brexit during the 2016 EU referendum.

Above all, though, the party defines itself by its support for the UK. This insistence on keeping the union whole has set up a series of red lines on Brexit that both May and Johnson have found all but impossible to square with their own promises to take the UK out of the customs union while maintaining a frictionless border between Northern Ireland and the Republic in the south.

Foster has repeatedly stated her desire not have a hard border – but, for her and her party, continued economic and political alignment with the rest of the UK is key.

The party’s socially conservative and unionist policies have long made it a natural ally of the Tories, with the 2017 confidence and supply agreement formalizing this relationship. The election of December 2019 has reduced the importance of the DUP in Parliament and brought the agreement with the Conservatives to an end.

The Johnson government and the DUP have fallen out over the Brexit Deal which seem to offer the possibility of negotiating a separate arrangement for N Ireland- which the DUP is opposed to.Under Mr Johnson's deal, Northern Ireland will effectively stay in the EU's single market for goods but Stormont can vote to end that arrangement.

Mrs May's deal could have seen Northern Ireland enter a "backstop" arrangement which could only have been ended with the EU's approval. Whether the DUP use their veto will depend on the results of the final deal with the EU to be concluded by the end of 2020.

UKIP began as a fringe nationalist party in 1991, and by the 21st century was associated with one man — Nigel Farage — and one issue: opposition to Britain's membership of the EU. It owed its slowly growing national profile to a sense of dissatisfaction with the way in which the three

main parties seemed constantly to accommodate themselves to the quickening pace of European integration. In the 2014 European elections UKIP gained a total of 24 MEPs, making it the largest

UK party in the European Parliament. It won 3.9 million votes in the 2015 general election, although under the first-past-the-post voting system this total returned only one MP.

UKIP is a radical right-wing populist party, whose supporters tend to be older, more traditional people who feel left behind in a rapidly changing world. They are often people with lower levels of education and job security, anxious about what they see as challenges to their way of life. For many, immigration has been a major concern. UKIP supporters saw the arrival of large numbers of Eastern Europeans, following the expansion of the EU in 2004, as a threat to 'British jobs' and to the native British way of life. Unlike the older British National Party (BNP), which was associated with overt racial prejudice, UKIP seemed a more 'respectable' option. Its most prominent figure, Nigel Farage (party leader 2006-09 and 2010-16), was a charismatic individual whose chummy, outspoken persona was one to which many ordinary people could relate. By not conforming to the image of mainstream 'liberal establishment' figures such as Cameron, Clegg and Miliband, he appealed to voters who felt disillusioned with the three main parties.

'At the heart of Reform's success is a fundamental realignment of the party preference of Brexit supporters'. 

in 2025 , although Reform UK is a relatively small party in the House of Commons, it holds significant influence due to the threat it poses to the Conservatives. The five seats it won in the 2024 UK general election were previously Conservative strongholds, and its position as a right-wing alternative to the Tories could shape the party’s message and direction in opposition. Similar to how UKIP pressured David Cameron before the 2015 general election—leading him to call the Brexit referendum—Reform UK’s strong stances on human rights and immigration could heavily impact Conservative policy. Their presence also affects the Labour government, making it more cautious about appearing too soft on immigration and less inclined to suggest rejoining the EU, especially with many “red wall” seats in the north of England having supported Brexit. In May 2025, Reform UK excelled in local elections, taking control of 10 councils and winning the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, which brought their first female MP into Parliament. While the party has faced issues in the Commons, including one MP suspended for bullying and another for questionable financial dealings, it continues to grow in support, topping every major opinion poll between May and December 2025. Reform UK’s rise highlights how smaller parties can influence political direction, contributing to Labour’s tougher stance on immigration and the Conservatives’ shift further to the right.