Established by former senior government official Regina Ip in 2011, the party aims at broadening the middle class and civil servant votes where the pro-Beijing camp had traditionally underperformed.

Since Ip has strongly indicated her interest in becoming Chief Executive and has run in 2012 and 2017 respectively, it has been suggested that the party is primarily a vehicle for that goal.

The party's stated platform includes universal suffrage, economic diversification[2] and the reduction in the wealth gap.

[3] The leading figure of the New People's Party is Regina Ip, who was the then Secretary for Security and the incumbent member of the Legislative Council, as well as the chair of the think tank Savantas Policy Institute.

Ip announced her interest in running for the Chief Executive in the 2012 election, but failed to secure enough nominations to enter the race.

The NPP scored a victory in the 2016 Legislative Council election by taking three seats in the geographical constituencies and doubled their vote share from 3.76 to 7.73 per cent.

[7] Due to the lobbying by the Liaison Office for former Chief Secretary Carrie Lam and pro-democrats' aim to send former Financial Secretary John Tsang and retired judge Woo Kwok-hing into the race, Ip was squeezed out from canvassing a minimum number of 150 nominations in the 1,194-member Election Committee to enter the race for the second time.

[9] Michael Tien, the party deputy chairman, complained the election had "lost its shape" due to the increasing interference of "an invisible hand", referring to the Liaison Office.

In February 2021, after Xia Baolong called for only "patriots" to be part of the Hong Kong government, the NPP voiced full support and claimed that "[T]he Legislative Council and the District Council, occupied by people who oppose the country's sovereignty and endanger national security... distorted Hong Kong's political system.