Parker stood as a candidate for
Libertas in the
2009 European election in the
East Midlands. She was second on the party list; the party won 0.6% of the vote and no seats. By the following year she had defected to the
UK Independence Party (UKIP). She stood in
Sherwood in the
2010 general election, finishing 5th (1,490 votes, 3%). In 2012, she stood in the
Corby by-election, finishing third with 5,108 votes (14.3%). In 2014, Parker was nominated as the second candidate on the East Midlands
list for UKIP in preparation for the
2014 European Parliament election. She was subsequently elected alongside
Roger Helmer as a UKIP MEP for the East Midlands constituency. Following the election of
Henry Bolton as leader of UKIP in 2017, Parker was appointed deputy leader. After Bolton refused to stand down following a vote of no confidence by UKIP's National Executive Committee, Parker resigned as deputy leader. During the leadership of
Gerard Batten, Parker served as Home Affairs spokeswoman and Deputy Chair of the UK Independence Party, but resigned her post and membership of the party in April 2019, defecting to the
Brexit Party, alongside
Jane Collins &
Jill Seymour, citing Batten's defence of
Carl Benjamin's 2016 tweet saying he "wouldn't even rape"
Labour MP
Jess Phillips. Despite her defection, Parker was not selected as a Brexit Party candidate for the
2019 European Parliament elections, and ceased to be a Member of the European Parliament on 26 May 2019. ==References==