When you joined Advance UK, you did more than support a political party. You became a member of the company, Advance UK Party Limited.

It helps to know that two separate things are true right now:

• Advance UK has stopped being a registered political party. As a party, it is winding down its activities.
• But Advance UK is also a company, and that company has not closed. A company cannot simply vanish. It has to settle its bills and finish its affairs first, so it will keep existing for a while yet.

Your membership remains of the company. This is why it does not disappear just because the party has stopped its political activity. The company still exists, so you are still a member.

Advance UK is a type of company called a "company limited by guarantee." In this kind of company, there are no shareholders. Instead, the company is made up of its members. So being a member is a real, formal role in the company. It is not just being a supporter, or being on an email list like it is for other political parties - you have rights.

Our rules require members to pay a fee once a year. This is written in our constitution (Article 27.5). Paying that yearly fee is what keeps you a member. It is due at this time of year, so it has been collected now, in the normal way.

Please be assured: this payment is safe and normal. It does not mean anyone has misused your bank details.

One last point, because it surprises people: being a member and paying the yearly fee go together. One cannot happen without the other. If the fee is not paid, your membership stops, and you would no longer be a member of the company. In plain terms, not paying is the same as choosing to leave. The renewal is not an extra charge on top of your membership — the renewal is your membership.

Why did you not just refund everyone and stop taking renewals?

This is a fair question, and we understand why this might have happened if the party were configured differently. However, Advance UK was set up to be a democratic party from the outset, with members being part of the company, which means our members have rights that we cannot just take away.

If we had simply stopped taking renewals, we would have ended everyone's membership of the company without asking them. That would have made the decision for you, and we refuse to make a decision for you that removes your rights. 

If we had refunded everyone automatically, we would have done the same thing because membership of the company depends on payment of the subscription. We would have forced every single member out of the company, whether they wanted to leave or not. Again, this would have stripped you of your rights as a member, and we will not do that without your permission.

Neither stopping renewals or issuing mass refunds without a request is fair, because the choice belongs to you about your membership. So we did the only thing that protects everyone: we renewed as normal, so that no one loses their membership by accident, and we are offering a refund to anyone who actively wants one. That way, people who want to stay can stay, and people who want to leave can leave. Nobody has the decision made for them.