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The 2016 vote to leave the European Union was one of the biggest developments in recent United Kingdom political history. Only one political party was wholly united for Brexit – the United Kingdom Independence Party. This research finds that in the years leading up to Brexit, the United Kingdom Independence Party presented itself as a rigid core-issue complete-populist party. Content analysis shows how pervasive the European Union was in much of the party output and in the contemporaneous newspaper coverage of the party. The party also utilizes complete-populist rhetoric, with 'othering' populism as the most prevalent form. The consistent concentration on the European Union collocated with populist messaging, in both news releases and select newspaper coverage, may have helped afford the United Kingdom Independence Party issue-eliteness in the referendum campaign. But this same work may have also ultimately contributed to make them irrelevant by 2017, and possibly moribund by 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Green Party of England and Wales is trying to move from being perceived as a party with a specific environmental focus to a broad-spectrum political force with policy and opinion across the full range of political issues. How does the UK press respond to this change of agenda by the party? An analysis of UK newspaper articles and Green Party press releases reveals a dissonance between what is discussed by the party and what is printed about the party. Further investigation reveals that, in relation to specific political events, Green Party opinion, even though appearing to widen the political debate on some key issues, was largely ignored by UK newspapers. These findings have implications for any minority or ‘core-issue’ party looking to widen its political agenda and electoral appeal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]