\n"}\n\nThe Registration of Political Parties Act 1998 (c. 48), or An Act to make provision about the registration of political parties was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to set up a register of political parties in the United Kingdom.\n Previously there had been no such register, and political parties were \nnot specially recognised. There are currently 468 political parties \nregistered in the UK as of October 8 2016.
\nThe legislation was introduced for a variety of reasons. \u2026 [One] motivation was the use of the names Literal Democrats, Conversative Party and Labor Party\n by people in elections in the 1990s; these names were criticised as \npotentially confusing with the names of the three major parties in the \nUK (the Liberal Democrats, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party respectively). In the 1994 European Elections, Richard Huggett stood as a Literal Democrat candidate for the Devon and East Plymouth seat, taking more votes than the Conservative Party margin over the Liberal Democrats.[1]
\n\n\nRichard John Huggett (born January 1944) is a British citizen \nnoted for standing in a variety of elections using descriptions which \nwere similar, but not identical, to those of established political \nparties, leading to this practice being outlawed under the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998.
\n\nHuggett also attempted to run as \u201cGerald Maclone\u201d in the Winchester constituency in the 1997 General Election and the following by-election (The sitting MP was junior minister Gerry Malone).[7][8]\n He stood under his own name as \u201cLiberal Democrat Top Choice for \nParliament\u201d in the General Election and as a \u201cLiteral Democrat\u201d in the following by-election.\n\n