With elections you don’t have a statutory "cooling-off" period. You can’t demand your money back if you are disappointed with your purchase.

Therefore, when you go to the ballot box, it is critical you understand exactly what you are voting for and exactly what you are going to get if the party you vote for actually wins. In truth, most people know where UK Independence Party stands on a range of issues, such as independence, free-speech, and border controls, but, for whatever reason, their business ideas may not be so well known. I hope this introduction will demonstrate that there is still a world of difference between UK Independence Party and the vested interests that the establishment parties stand for.

Constitutionally, UK Independence Party is a democratic, libertarian Party. categorically not a socialist party. We oppose State control and public ownership, nationalisation, high taxes, redistribution of wealth and collectivism through all-powerful trade unions. By the same token, UK Independence Party is definitely not a Tory doppelganger either. The Tories were once the party of UK business but now they have fallen under the thumb of global big-business and the finance industry. The small man no longer matters to them (except – of course - at election times).

UK Independence Party is different from the Lab/Cons. The focus of our business policy is to help UK families clothe their children, put food on the table, pay the mortgage and pay university tuition fees rather than line the pockets of invisible big corporate shareholders in New York or Los Angeles or fund the large pension pots of cossetted public service workers.

We take pride in standing as the party of small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). SMEs are independent UK owned firms employing fewer than 250 employees. SMEs are the lifeblood and backbone of the UK economy. There were 6.0 million of them in 2020. Many young people started their working life with a small or medium-sized business and around 25 per cent of white van owners are self-employed. They include small manufacturers, small processing plants, small traders, fishermen, small export-import companies, small distributors, shops, pubs, restaurants, renters, service companies, plumbers, carpenters, financial advisers, delivery firms, gas fitters, many self-employed, many family partnerships and many more. We salute them all.

The UK Independence Party philosophy is to diminish the role of the State  and to lower the burden of tax on individuals and businesses.  We support and encourage people who make decisions in respect of themselves, who seek to be self-reliant and who aspire to improve their own situation. We believe that advancing freedom, liberty and self-reliance creates far more wealth for the UK population, than the dead-hand of the State (or what Labour laughingly calls "common endeavour", which basically involves levelling people down rather than up).

It is important to stress that UK Independence Party is not against the welfare state, or the National Health Service and remains firmly committed to the NHS as a service ‘free at the point of delivery’, we would not consider privatisation. However, unlike the Labour Party and some other socialist style parties, we are not ideologically opposed to the use of some private enterprise either within the NHS or to complement it where this can improve cost effectiveness or efficiency.

We know it takes willpower, stamina, and determination to run an SME and want to help small business owners make money, keep costs down, minimise taxes, find business opportunities, and generate funds for growth.

Now that the UK is free from the apron-strings of Brussels, (with the regrettable exception of Northern Ireland), our business and industry can become far more self-sufficient. We believe there is a world of opportunity for UK SMEs to trade globally now that we are free of EU rules.

We strongly support the free market and private enterprise and aim to reduce or eliminate unnecessary taxes and keep government out of the way of innovation and job creation.

Steve Grimes

UK Independence Party Spokesman for Business, Trade and Foreign Affairs