Wessex Regionalists

Speaking at a tourism industry conference in 1969, the then Viscount Weymouth suggested Wessex as a regional identity for tourism purposes. He later wrote letters to the press, objecting to Wessex not being given the same opportunities as Scotland or Wales in the Kilbrandon Report.^[3] Lord Weymouth subsequently stood as the first Wessex Regionalist parliamentary candidate for Westbury in the February 1974 general election,^[3] coming last with 521 votes.^[4]

The party was formally constituted in 1981. It initially used Thomas Hardy's definition of Wessex as Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset and Devon; but later added Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.^[5][6] It pulled out of the 1987 general election and advocated that its supporters voted for the Liberal/SDP Alliance on the basis that they were a close second in many Wessex seats and were the most supportive of regional government.^[7]

Lord Weymouth (who succeeded as The 7th Marquess of Bath in June 1992) was the first president of the party, later defecting to the Liberal Democrats^[2] although in 1999 he was "still in touch" with the Wessex Regionalists.^[8] Subsequent presidents have included the activist John Banks and the former architect Colin Bex.^[9] In 2010, during his term as President, Bex advocated for a 100% tax rate on the top 10% of earners, with the revenue passed to parish councils.^[2]

In 2013, Dorset County Councillor David C. Fox switched his party allegiance from Liberal Democrat to Wessex Regionalist for his final few days in office.^[10]

During the 2015 general election, then-leader Colin Bex cast doubt on the official version of events of the 2001 September 11 attacks.^[9] During the UK's 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union, Bex campaigned to leave.^[11] He described immigration as a "peaceful invasion", describing "people from all over the world" as "infiltrating" national institutions.^[11] Bex was replaced as leader by Jim Gunter, who stood as candidate for the Devizes constituency: at a hustings shortly before the 2017 general election, Gunter advocated for a second referendum on Brexit and, if that were not possible, the "Norway option" of remaining in the single market.^[12]

In the 2024 general election, the Regionalists endorsed the campaign of independent candidate George Wright, standing in the constituency of Maidenhead.^[13] Wright received 791 votes, a 1.6% share.^[14] In 2025, he wrote to the Maidenhead Advertiser that he had become an active member of the party, and argued for a confederal model for Europe as opposed to the "quasi-federal" status quo involving Article 50.^[15]

In 2026, James Edward Crabb was put forward as candidate for Hampshire County Council in Winchester Eastgate,^[16] campaigning for "better scrutiny of the infrastructural and ecological effects of urban development", and questioning the government's approach to local government reorganisation.^[17] Crabb placed 6th of 6 candidates, with 49 votes.^[18]

One source labels the Wessex Regionalists, alongside other pro-devolution parties, as "ethnoterritorial,"^[19] though an earlier study of regionalist and nationalist parties in Britain reached the opposite conclusion, saying that "For regionalism, the legitimacy of the state as a whole is not usually in question; the challenge is to its territorial organisation. This is in contrast to ethnic nationalism (for example, that advocated for Wales), which suggests that the state is not legitimate because it contains different nations."^[20] Its platform is based on the creation of a devolved assembly for the region it defines as Wessex.^[2] The party defines the counties of Berkshire, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire as being part of Wessex. Whilst this roughly corresponds to the South West Region, it also includes the Western counties of the South East Region, and excludes Cornwall, which it describes as being "the last of the Celtic areas to be brought under Wessex rule, retain[ing] a more distinct character" as well as "its own devolutionary party," Mebyon Kernow.^[21] The assembly has variously been described as having a rotating location in the style of the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot and as being based in Winchester, which had been the capital of the ancient kingdom of Wessex.^[22][23] The assembly would take power from Parliament in Westminster rather than from local authorities.^[23]

In light of UK government recognition of the Cornish people as a national minority under a European treaty, in 2014 the party called for greater protection of local produce and what it described as the "Wessex dialect".^[22] The party believes that the Wessex region has a distinct cultural identity, which it seeks to promote.^[24] It defines this culture as including morris dancing, cider, and the works of various local writers.^[2] The party was described in 2010 by The Guardian as having a "nostalgia for pre–industrial revolution England".^[2]

The party has expressed skepticism towards upcoming structural changes to local government in England, arguing that devolved regional governance could better relieve local authorities of pressures caused by "problems of a larger scale" such as adult social care.^[17]

A 2018 survey found that when prompted with a text emphasising shared DNA, history, and linguistic features, as well as which focused on political concerns of a regional scale, people from the South West of England were more likely to express support for the Wessex Regionalists.^[25]