The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP; , ) is a satirical political party established in the United Kingdom in 1982 by the musician David Sutch, also known as Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow, or simply Lord Sutch. It is known for its deliberately bizarre policies and for fielding novelty candidates to offer itself as an alternative for protest voters, especially in constituencies where the party holding a safe seat is unlikely to lose it.
In 1997 their leader Alan "Howling Laud" Hope was elected unopposed to Ashburton Town Council in Devon. In 1999 Hope moved to Hampshire, where he became a member of Fleet council, once again uncontested. Since its founding the party has participated in 11 general elections, although it has not won representation in UK Parliament.
History Sutch era Starting in 1963, David Sutch, head of the rock group Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, stood in British parliamentary elections under a range of party names, initially as the National Teenage Party candidate. At that time, the minimum voting age was 21. The party's name was intended to highlight what Sutch and others viewed as hypocrisy, since teenagers were unable to vote because of their supposed immaturity while the adults running the country were involved in scandals such as the Profumo affair.
Sutch moved to America in 1968. After being shot during a mugging attempt while living in the United States, Sutch returned to Britain (and to politics) during the 1980s. The Raving Loony name first appeared at the Bermondsey by-election of 1983.
A similar concept had appeared earlier in the Election Night Special sketch on the television comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus, in which the Silly and Sensible parties competed; and a similar skit by The Goodies, in which Graeme Garden stood as a Science Loony. A Science Fiction Looney candidate had also competed in the 1976 Cambridge by-election.
Two others were important in the formation of the OMRLP: John Desmond Dougrez-Lewis stood in the Crosby by-election of 1981 (won by the Social Democratic Party's co-founder Shirley Williams); and Dougrez-Lewis stood in the by-election as Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel, taken from the Election Night Special Monty Python sketch. He had changed his name by deed poll from John Desmond Lewis, on behalf of the Cambridge University Raving Loony Society (Curls), an "anti-political party" and charity fundraising group formed largely as a fun counter-response to increasingly polarised student politics in Cambridge. It was responsible for a number of fun stunts. Its Oxford University equivalents were the "Oxford Raving Lunatics". Dougrez-Lewis became Sutch's agent at the Bermondsey by-election, where the OMRLP banner was first officially unfurled. Reverting to his original name, Dougrez-Lewis stood for the new party in Cambridge in the 1983 general election.
Another serial offbeat by-election candidate was Commander Bill Boaks, a retired World War II hero who took part in sinking the Bismarck. Boaks campaigned and stood for election for over 30 years on limited funds, always on the issue of road safety. Boaks proved influential on Sutch's direction as the leading anti-politician: "It's the ones who don't vote you really want, because they're the ones who think."
Boaks thought that increased traffic and more roads would cause problems, and he addressed road safety with flamboyant campaigning and a variety of tactics, including private prosecution of public figures who escaped public prosecution for drunk driving. He successfully campaigned with Sutch and others to pedestrianise London's Carnaby Street. While recovering from being struck by a motorcycle, Boaks was one of Sutch's counting agents at Bermondsey in 1983. Following Boaks's death, popular opinion towards road safety has become closer to his views.
Screaming Lord Sutch died by suicide on 16 June 1999 while suffering from clinical depression after his mother, Annie, died in 1998. A biography of Sutch, The Man Who Was Screaming Lord Sutch (by Graham Sharpe, the media relations manager of bookmaker William Hill), was published in April 2005, describing what remained of the party as "wannabes, never-would-bes and some bloody-well-shouldn't-bes".
Post-Sutch Sutch's funeral – organised by his friend, the session drummer and former Rolling Stones member Carlo Little – was attended by members of the OMRLP and Raving Loony Green Giant Party, including Stuart Hughes, who with Freddie Zapp brought along a huge floral tribute shaped as an OMRLP rosette. The running of the OMRLP fell to Alan "Howling Laud" Hope and his cat, Catmando, who were the joint winners of the 1999 membership ballot for the replacement for Sutch. Although Hope took over as party leader after Sutch's death, the real day-to-day running of the party has always been done by other party members.
The OMRLP fielded 15 candidates in the 2001 general election, at which it had its best general election results to date.
The manifesto, entitled The Manicfesto, for the 2005 general election featured the major commitment of their long held pledge to abolish income tax, citing as always that it was only meant to be a temporary measure during the Napoleonic Wars. Also included was another old staple, the "Putting Parliament on Wheels" idea of having Parliament sit throughout the country rather than solely in Londonwith special emphasis this time in its creation negating the need for national/regional assemblies.
The OMRLP has fielded candidates since 2001, with reduced success and losing their deposits.
The OMRLP's official headquarters was originally the Golden Lion Hotel in Ashburton, Devon, then the Dog & Partridge pub at Yateley in Hampshire, but this was lost shortly after the 2005 general election. Conference venues are now chosen in advance: the 2006 conference was held at Torrington in Devon, and the 2007 conference was held in Jersey. The conference was held in Blackpool in 2017.
The party's last elected representative was R. U. Seerius (formerly Jon Brewer) on the eleven-member Sawley Parish Council in Derbyshire, first elected (uncontested) in 2005. He was no longer a member as of May 2007, having failed to appear at no fewer than 11 statutory meetings during his time in office, due to illness.
In March 2007, the party's vice-president Melodie "Boney Maroney" Staniforth left the party, although she ran in the Kirklees election in April 2007. The OMRLP succeeded in standing in the two by-elections of 19 July 2007 in Sedgefield and Ealing Southall, but again achieving derisory results: Alan Hope acquiring 129 votes (0.46%) and John Cartwright taking 188 (0.51%), beating the English Democrats but coming behind the Christian Party of the Reverend George Hargreaves and David Braid.
In recognition that reforms were needed, Peter 'T.C.' Owen was moved from the honorary position of party chairman to that of deputy leader (and thus effective day-to-day leader) of the OMRLP, while Anthony "The Jersey Flyer" Blyth (owner of the Ommaroo Hotel and a member of the Jersey Heritage Trust) took over Owen's role. Owen is one of four Raving Loonies to have scored more than 1,000 votes in an election (he polled 2,859 votes in the 1994 European elections).
On 31 May 2017, Hope was interviewed by Andrew Neil on the BBC's Daily Politics programme.
Electoral performance In 1987, the OMRLP won its first seat on Ashburton Town Council in Devon, as Alan "Howling Laud" Hope was elected unopposed. He subsequently became deputy mayor and later mayor of Ashburton in 1998 (mainly opposed by the local Conservatives; they allegedly never forgave him for becoming a member of the OMRLP) until he moved to Hampshire after Sutch's death. For over a decade, his hotel, The Golden Lion, in Ashburton (referred to by some in the party as "The Mucky Mog") was the party's headquarters and conference centre.
Two councillors subsequently became mayors: Alan Hope in Ashburton in Devon and Chris "Screwy" Driver on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
At the Bootle by-election in May 1990, the Loony candidate (Sutch) received more votes than the candidate for the continuing Social Democrats. The story was a major headline in many UK newspapers; ironically, the by-election itself had attracted little coverage. Bootle is still regarded by the party as their most significant result in politics, albeit one largely lampooning the political world.
In the 1995 Perth and Kinross by-election, the OMRLP received more votes than the United Kingdom Independence Party and the Scottish Greens. In the 2019 Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, the OMRLP candidate Lady Lily the Pink polled more votes than UKIP. The party fielded 24 candidates and won a record number of votes in the 2019 general election, when it polled 9,739 votes, the party's highest vote at a general election.
The party has yet to save its deposit at a by-election by winning at least 5% of the vote, although Screaming Lord Sutch came close at the 1994 Rotherham by-election as the party's leader, winning 4.2% of the vote.
General elections Election Candidates Votes % of votes1983113,1050.0198751,9510.01992257,9290.11997247,9060.02001156,6550.02005196,3110.02010277,5100.02015273,8980.02017123,8900.02019249,7390.02024225,8140.0
By-elections 48th Parliament Election Candidate Votes % of votes Result1983 Bermondsey by-electionScreaming Lord Sutch970.36th of 161983 Darlington by-election3740.74th of 8
49th Parliament Election Candidate Votes % of votes Result1983 Penrith and The Border by-electionScreaming Lord Sutch4121.14th of 81984 Chesterfield by-election1780.35th of 171985 Brecon and Radnor by-election2020.55th of 71986 Fulham by-election1340.45th of 111986 Newcastle-under-Lyme by-election2770.74th of 7
50th Parliament Election Candidate Votes % of votesResult1988 Kensington by-electionScreaming Lord Sutch610.37th of 151988 Glasgow Govan by-election1740.67th of 81988 Epping Forest by-election2080.67th of 91989 Richmond (Yorks) by-election1670.36th of 91989 Vale of Glamorgan by-election2660.58th of 111989 Vauxhall by-election1060.410th of 141990 Mid Staffordshire by-election3360.67th of 14May 1990 Bootle by-election4181.26th of 81990 Knowsley South by-election1970.96th of 7November 1990 Bootle by-election3101.15th of 71990 Bradford North by-electionWild Willi Beckett2100.68th of 101991 Ribble Valley by-electionScreaming Lord Sutch2780.66th of 91991 Neath by-election2630.87th of 81991 Monmouth by-election3140.74th of 71991 Liverpool Walton by-election5461.45th of 6
51st Parliament Election Candidate Votes % of votes Result1993 Newbury by-electionScreaming Lord Sutch4320.77th of 191993 Christchurch by-election4040.85th of 141994 Rotherham by-election1,1144.24th of 51994 Bradford South by-election7272.44th of 51994 Eastleigh by-election7831.45th of 61995 Islwyn by-election5062.25th of 71995 Perth and Kinross by-election5861.45th of 91995 Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election7821.94th of 101996 Hemsworth by-election6523.05th of 101996 South East Staffordshire by-election5061.25th of 13
52nd Parliament Election Candidate Votes % of votes Result1997 Uxbridge by-electionScreaming Lord Sutch3961.34th of 111997 Winchester by-election3160.65th of 81999 Eddisbury by-electionHowling Laud Hope2380.74th of 61999 Kensington and Chelsea by-election200.117th of 18
53rd Parliament Election Candidate Votes % of votes Result2002 Ogmore by-electionLeslie Edwards1871.08th of 102003 Brent East by-electionHowling Laud Hope590.313th of 162004 Leicester South by-electionR. U. Seerius2250.86th of 112004 Hartlepool by-electionHowling Laud Hope800.312th of 14
54th Parliament