system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What are the major political parties of the U.K. and how do they compare ideologically to those here in the U.S.?
gpt
There are two major UK political parties: The Conservative Party and the Labour Party.

The **Conservatives** are the party currently in power. They are a right-leaning party although they're probably a little closer to the centre than the Republicans in the US are. A lot of their policies revolve around keeping taxes low and trying to reduce how reliant people are on the government for support. Theresa May is currently the leader of the Conservatives.

The **Labour** party are a left-leaning party, although the "new Labour" movement of the late 90s to the early 2000s led by Tony Blair was closer to the centre in terms of their policies. Labour are currently led by Jeremy Corbyn, who is controversial because he's *very* far on the left, which has annoyed a lot of the voters that favour Blair's style of politics more. Labour's policies tend to focus on social reform and giving more power to trade unions. Labour are the UK's equivalent of the Democratic party in the US, although Labour are probably more left-leaning (especially under Corbyn).

As well as the two "main" parties, there are also quite a few other parties with varying degrees of influence.

The **Scottish National Party** are currently the biggest of the other parties, with over 50 seats in Parliament. They are a centre-left party that focus on issues relating to Scotland. Devolution is their main campaigning point, which means reducing the power of decision-making in London and trying to introduce more Scotland-specific policies. The SNP will likely try to hold another referendum on Scottish independence following the Brexit vote. Nicola Sturgeon is the current leader of the SNP.

The **UK Independence Party (UKIP)** won 10% of the popular vote in the last election, although only won 1 seat in Parliament. UKIP are a right-leaning party (further right than the Conservatives) focused primarily on securing the UK's exit from the European Union, which they have now achieved. Their other key areas of focus are campaigning for tighter controls on immigration and introducing lower taxes. Paul Nuttall is currently the leader of UKIP, although the party has seen several leadership elections since Nigel Farage (sort of) stepped down as the leader in 2015.

The **Liberal Democrats** were very successful in the 2010 election and formed a coalition government with the Conservatives, giving them an unusual amount of power relative to the number of seats they had. The Lib Dems suffered heavy losses in the 2015 election however, as many people felt that they had failed to carry out some of their key election promises (such as halting the rise on tuition fees) when they were in the coalition. The Lib Dems are politically close to the centre, leaning slightly to the left. Their key issues include building closer ties with the EU, investing more in education and the NHS as well as focusing on environmental issues. Tim Farron is currently the leader of the Lib Dems.

There are a few other parties too, such as the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Fein. These parties are quite small and don't have much influence over UK politics at the moment.