Editing Referendum Party (section)

==Dissolution and legacy==
[[File:Nigel Farage of UKIP.jpg|thumb|right|UKIP Chairman Nigel Farage recruited many former Referendum Party candidates to his own party.|alt=A photograph of a middle-aged white man with grey hair. His mouth is open and his arms are raised, near to his shoulders, suggesting that he is giving a public speech. He is wearing a black suit jacket with alight blue shirt and mauve tie. A purple and yellow UKIP rosette is attached to his jacket.]]

Immediately after the election, the Referendum Party renamed itself the Referendum Movement.{{sfn|Barberis|McHugh|Tyldesley|2000|p=138}} Goldsmith had been suffering from [[pancreatic cancer]], and had been warned that competing in the election would shorten his life.{{sfn|Davenport-Hines|2004}} He died in [[Benahavis]], Spain, on 18 July 1997,{{sfn|Davenport-Hines|2004}} and the party disbanded shortly afterwards.{{sfn|Ford|Goodwin|2014|p=32}} Some of its members transformed into the [[Democracy Movement]], a [[Advocacy group|pressure group]] closely associated with the former Conservative supporter and multi-millionaire businessman [[Paul Sykes (businessman)|Paul Sykes]].{{sfn|Barberis|McHugh|Tyldesley|2000|p=138}} The Eurosceptic cause was weakened; with Blair's firmly pro-EU government in power, by 1998 the possibility of a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU was considered as distant as it had been in 1995.{{sfn|Carter|Evans|Alderman|Gorham|1998|p=479}}

Under the direction of UKIP's leader [[Michael Holmes (politician)|Michael Holmes]], UKIP's chairman [[Nigel Farage]] began recruiting former Referendum Party members to their own group; according to Farage, around 160 of the Referendum Party's candidates joined UKIP.{{sfn|Ford|Goodwin|2014|p=33}} Among those who did so was [[Jeffrey Titford]], who later became one of UKIP's first MEPs.{{sfn|Ford|Goodwin|2014|p=37}} Other former members of the Referendum Party joined the [[Democratic Party (UK, 1998)|Democratic Party]], a small Eurosceptic group founded in 1998.<ref name=leaping>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/nov/05/uk.politicalnews1|title=Leaping lord hits first hurdle in Portillo contest|last=Watt|first=Nicholas|date=5 November 1999|work=The Guardian|access-date=11 January 2010}}</ref> In the [[1999 Kensington and Chelsea by-election]], one candidate stood under the banner of the now-defunct "Referendum Party"; they came eleventh, with 57 votes.{{sfn|Cowley|Denver|Russell|Harrison|2013|p=268}} In the [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001 general election]], much of the support that had previously gone to the Referendum Party went not to UKIP but to the Conservatives, whose leader [[William Hague]] had employed Eurosceptic rhetoric throughout his campaign.{{sfn|Ford|Goodwin|2014|p=40}}

[[Rupert Lowe]], one of the Referendum Party's candidates in the 1997 general election, was elected as the [[Brexit Party]]'s lead candidate for the [[West Midlands (European Parliament constituency)|West Midlands constituency]] in the [[2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom|2019 European Parliament elections]] and was later elected MP for [[Reform UK]] for the constituency of [[Great Yarmouth (UK Parliament constituency)|Great Yarmouth]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/17600514.former-saints-chairman-rupert-lowe-named-as-candidate-for-the-brexit-party-in-euro-elections/|title=Former Saints chairman named as candidate for the Brexit Party in Euro elections|newspaper=Daily Echo|access-date=15 May 2019}}</ref> [[James Glancy]], another of the Brexit Party's MEPs, has compared the Brexit Party to the Referendum Party, being a "united and diverse group of people from different political backgrounds".<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGQ7o5gBVPQ&t=83 "Brexit Party vows to take on and represent Gibraltar's interests in Europe"], ''GBC News'', 16 May 2019, via YouTube</ref>