The Northumbrian Nationalist Party is a socialist nationalist party, modeled on the SNP and Plaid Cymru. Founded in the Thatcher era in response to what was seen as a Westminster government that was actively destroying the northern economy, the NNP were initially not taken seriously, before they caused a huge shock by winning the Tyne Bridge by election in 1985. The party was to poll at around 8% in the seats that it ran in in the following two general elections, before making a minor breakthrough by taking two more seats in the 1997 general election. In 2004, it scored a major victory by achieving its stated goal of a devolved assembly to Northumbria, which it defined as including the historic counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, and Cumbria. The first elections to the new assembly in 2006 saw it claim 14% of the vote, and form a coalition with the Labour Party in the new Northumbrian executive. It has continued its rise in the wake of the financial crisis, expanding its appeal from the old Labour voting mining districts into the larger cities. In 2014, it shifted its policy from advocating further devolution to Northumbria to outright independence. Subsequently, it achieved a record tally of 16 Seats in the 2015 General Election, and the following year, it narrowly overtook Labour to become the largest party in the Northumbrian government. Whilst it is challenging Labour as the dominant party of the north, its long term goal of an independence referendum for Northumbria has yet to be achieved.
English Republican Party
