UKIP Youth
UKIP Youth is the unofficial national youth and student wing of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
History
Previous leaders of UKIP Youth Movement have been Mark Lester and Nikki Sinclaire who chaired 'YUK!'. There has never been a successful large scale Youth wing in UKIP. This is partially due to the low number of younger members.
In 2005, two organisations were apparently formed around the same time. One was UKIP Youth, the other was named "Youthkip".
Youthkip was founded by Alex McKee and Jan Guest, young members of UKIP. It was founded at the second meeting of the Lechlade Group, a UKIP Think-tank. It addressed the UKIP Conference in October 2005 with a principal youth speaker, Matthew Faithful, getting a standing ovation.
UKIP Youth was previously managed by Katy Davies, Assistant to Nigel Farage MEP. This organisation faltered after Davies went to live in the USA.
Renewed attempts are underway to establish a UKIP Youth organisation. This is currently being set up a committee of younger members. The Keele University UKIP branch was founded on 21st November, 2005 by Wayne Harling, Paul Dennet (both students at Keele University), and David Nixon, chairman of the Newcastle-under-Lyme branch. Wayne hopes a new UKIP Youth group of national size can challenge the presence of Conservative Future in universities and colleges around the UK.
The UKIP NEC has not officially accepted any youth movement, although a committee of young people are propsing their IDeaS to the NEC at their next meeting.