Veritas (Latin: truth) was a political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 2005 by Robert Kilroy-Silk following a split from the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Kilroy-Silk served as party leader through the 2005 General Election. He was succeeded by Patrick Eston, who resigned in 2008 citing frustrations of his efforts to reform the party. The party merged into the English Democrats in 2015. Veritas had no representation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, although it had members serve in the European Parliament and the London Assembly, elected as UKIP members and defecting upon Veritas' formation. At the time of its merger, the party had not put forward General Election candidates since 2005. Formation Robert Kilroy-Silk, a former Labour shadow cabinet member and television presenter, was elected as a UKIP Member of the European Parliament in the 2004 European Parliament election for the East Midlands region. His ambition to attain the leadership of that party was announced in October 2004, but it proved very unpopular within the party. Instead of risking disciplinary action for continuing this action, Kilroy-Silk resigned the party whip, while remaining a full member and asserting his continued challenge. The plan ultimately failed, and Kilroy-Silk finally resigned from the party – as had been long expected – on 20 January 2005. Rumours circulated immediately that Kilroy-Silk was set to form his own party, fuelled by the registration of the domain name "veritasparty.com" a month earlier. An earlier rumour suggested that he had been in negotiations with the English Democrats to join and lead their party. Veritas – Latin for "truth" – was officially founded in a press conference on 2 February, during which Kilroy-Silk proclaimed "unlike the old parties, we shall be honest, open and straight", devoid of the other parties' "lies and spin". There were a number of defections from UKIP to the new party. They included UKIP London Assembly member Damian Hockney, who became deputy leader. At the time of formation, its primary policy was opposition to immigration to the United Kingdom. It was perceived to be more specific than UKIP's general euroscepticism, and almost to the point of Veritas being labelled a single-issue party. Kilroy-Silk also proposed support for the introduction of flat tax in opposition to the existing system of income tax bands varying with income. Kilroy-Silk's preferred figure was 22%, the "basic rate" band in which most UK citizens fell at