English Democrats

The English Democrats are an English federalist party with the broad aim of representing England in the same way that the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru represent Scotland and Wales respectively.

The party was originally launched in 1997 by Robin Tilbrook, under the name of the English National Party; Tilbrook subsequently relaunched the party under its current name in 2002.

English Democrats policies include the establishment of an English parliament (thereby solving the West Lothian Question); withdrawal from the European Union; a points-based immigration system; and "an end to political correctness".

The English Democrats party has been associated by some critics with the BNP. Although the party's policies do not contain the same racist angle, there is an overlap in terms of membership. There have been reports that almost 43% of English Democrats candidates in the 2012 local elections have been involved with the BNP, but this claim has not been confirmed. They received some negative public attention in 2009 when they shared a platform with the far-right England First Party, and have been widely criticised in the blogosphere for failing to keep Steve Uncles on a lead.

The party's main political success was in getting one of its members, Peter Davies, elected as mayor of Doncaster in 2009. He left the party in early 2013, citing the amount of ex-BNP members in the English Democrats as the reason.