functions and types

• Niche parties may be nationalist, such as the former British Nationalist Party and Sinn Fein or may be single-issue like the Green Party and former Brexit Party.
• The mainstream parties for Westminster elections are the Conservative Party and Labour Party however it could be argued that the SNP, Sinn Fein/the DUP and the Lib Dems are also relatively mainstream.
• Representation - parties should act as a link between the people and parliament by reflecting their wishes in their policy. For example Graham Brady as Altrincham MP supports the continuation of grammar schools. However because of FPTP the govt is usually the minority's choice. This is also limited by the extent to which an MP follows the delegate, trustee or mandate model.
• Policy formulation - parties should innovate their own policy programmes and offer a significant, clear choice to the electorate. For example in 2019 the Conservatives' policy on Brexit won them a lot of votes compared to Labour's which was relatively unclear.
• In times of political consensus parties arguably fail to offer the electorate choice in developing their own unique policy programmes. This is true of leaders like Starmer and Blair. Voters may also be influenced by other factors more so than policy.
• Organisation of government - under FPTP the UK generally has single-party governments meaning parties are the basis of government and allow for co-operation between the legislative and executive. This also gives the opposition a clear basis for scrutiny.
• The existence of factions within a party limit their ability to organise a stable government, as is clear with Sunak's difficulty in passing his Rwanda bill.
• Parties are responsible for the recruitment of leaders as all senior political careers start from within a party. For example Cameron was first elected MP in 2001 and became PM in 2010. As an MP/PPC they can be trained in canvassing and running a constituency party. Unsuitable candidates can also be filtered out.
• It is worth considering whether a politician is better trained by living a normal life or as a career politician. For example Sunak worked as a hedge fund manager before becoming an MP.
• Participation and mobilisation of the electorate - parties' campaigning engages the electorate by nature. Voters can also become party members although membership has significantly declined recently.
• Arguably Labour has failed to mobilise the electorate often as they in theory represent the working class, the largest social group in the country.