Anti-Establishment Status Draws Young Ukippers

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Middle-aged, white and yearning for a return to Britain's glory days.

That's the stereotype perpetuated by UKIP's political opponents and political observers since the party was founded over 20 years ago.

Certainly that demographic was packing out the chairs at UKIP's spring conference at the Winter Gardens in Margate.

One member tried to convince us that the party was now much more inclusive, by insisting there were a number of 'coloureds' in the audience.

But meet Charlie Leys.

He's just 18, still in the sixth form and is fighting to be a UKIP councillor. He's even cajoled a couple of friends into helping him hand out leaflets on the campaign trail.

Charlie insists he studied all of the different parties' policies before deciding to join Nigel Farage's self-described 'People's Army'.

He is passionate about political engagement.

He said: "I don't mind if young people vote for someone else as long as they do vote and as long as they are engaged and actually care."

"Obviously I'd hope (they would choose) UKIP, but we live in a democratic society and everyone should have a say on what they believe in."

This election has seen all the major parties scrabbling to engage the youth vote.

Conservative Future boasts 15,000 young members; the Liberal Democrats say they have 2,758 junior supporters, while the Greens claim to have doubled their youth membership in 2014.

And UKIP's numbers are staggering. They doubled their supporters last year and have increased that total by another 83% so far in 2015.

It's all the more surprising given the reaction we received when we asked Birmingham University students to tell us what words first came to mind when they thought about UKIP.

'Racists' and 'bigotry' were just two of the epithets.

To understand why young people would join a party so derided by many of their peers, we spoke to five committed supporters in a snooker hall in one of the target constituencies.

Jack Duffin from Youth Independence said: "UKIP offers change. It's not just in terms of immigration policy and the European Union. It's down to education. Education is why I got involved in politics.

"You had the Labour party turn around and say 'every child is exactly the same and that's why you need to send everyone to comprehensive school'.

"What brought me to UKIP is reading all the negative press because I was reading all these smear stories and all these scandals and gaffes but they weren't attacking them on policy but attacking them on what someone said, it was all these petty things."

Michael Heaver from Thurrock, a former Labour supporter, added: "The gap between the rich and poor is getting bigger.

"The cultural divide is getting bigger and bigger - whether it is art, media or sport. People who are born into privilege now are dominating and Nigel is the only one that has been flagging that up."

So what is behind the bump in the number of young people supporting a party advocating a return to Britain's golden age?

Jim Waterson from Buzzfeed told Sky News that he believes it is about anti-establishment status.

"If you want to provoke everyone at University and everyone expecting you to be a left wing student... going on marches against tuition fees... to join UKIP, in some ways, is the most provocative thing you could do," he said.

The 'youth kippers' we spoke to also called for smartphone voting and proportional representation to help smaller parties gain purchase.

But as the number surges, they all seem to share one belief: that media misconceptions and perceived bias are stifling UKIP'S voice.