In the 1980 general elections, the AUM won six of the seven seats in the House of Assembly and the Hon. James Ronald Webster became the Chief Minister of Anguilla. Soon after, Mr. Webster called an election and Mr. Hughes of the AUM lost his seat. In 1984, Mr. Hughes and another AUM candidate, the Hon. Albert Hughes, regained their seats.

The AUM again won two seats in the 1994 elections and came to office in a coalition government with Mr. Hubert Hughes as Chief Minister. During his term of office, he was able to keep Anguilla‘s national debt extremely low and run a government without budgetary deficits. At the end of his term, Anguilla was listed among the fastest growing economies in the region.

The AUM again came to office in a coalition government in 1999 with Mr. Hughes as Chief Minister. Soon after, his Minister of Finance resigned and the government was unconstitutionally locked out of the House of Assembly for ten months. A general election was held in March 2000 and the AUM occupied the Opposition benches for the next ten years.

Following the general elections of 15 February 2010, the AUM was sworn in as the government of Anguilla, having won four of the seven seats. The Hon. Hubert Hughes became Chief Minister for the third time. In June 2010, the Hon. Jerome Roberts, elected member for District 2, of the Anguilla Progressive Party (APP), crossed the floor and joined the government.

The Hon. Hubert Hughes elected to retire from office at the end of the 2010 – 2015 term. Dr. Ellis Webster is leading the party in the 2015 general election.

Despite securing 38.24% of the valid votes in the 22 April 2015 general election, the AUM failed to win any seats.

In 2018, the AUM was rebranded as the Anguilla Progressive Movement (APM).