[7] In January 2016, Waters launched Pegida UK in conjunction with activist Tommy Robinson and far-right politician Paul Weston.

After living in the Netherlands, she studied journalism at Nottingham Trent University in England, graduating in 2003, and gained a law degree in London while working as a secretary in the NHS.

[13] Waters is a lesbian in a civil partnership,[14] and, although born and raised in the Republic of Ireland, has described herself as "passionately, loyally, resolutely and proudly British".

[15] Waters unsuccessfully stood for the Labour Party in the 2010 Lambeth London Borough Council election for Streatham Hill ward.

[19][better source needed] She was initially chosen to stand as a UKIP candidate in the 2016 London Assembly election, but was deselected when her role in Pegida UK was announced.

[23] She planned to launch her campaign in Rotherham, leading to concerns among local UKIP branch members that the choice to hold it there was political opportunism.

[24][25] UKIP's Rotherham branch released a statement calling for members to boycott the campaign launch with the backing of MEP Jane Collins after their concerns were ignored by Waters's team.

In early July, over a thousand new members had joined the party in two weeks, leading to accusations of far-right infiltration in support of Waters.

[11][24][28] Waters said she would not be opposed to Tommy Robinson joining UKIP, and eighteen of the party's twenty MEPs vowed to leave if she won the leadership.

[42] Waters has been criticised for her association with far-right politicians and organisations and has praised Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen.

[47] However, in 2019, she spoke at a Generation Identity conference, and claimed in her speech that mass immigration was being used to remove political power from white people.