Funding of Parties

• In the UK, political parties have always relied on a great deal of private funding, although they do have some limited access to public funds to subside policy development and parliamentary scrutiny
• What is a leading criticism of the private funding of political parties?

  Wealthy vested interests can ‘bankroll’ a political party to achieve their own political objectives
• Policy development grants allocate £2 million to all the main parties so that they can employ policy advisors
• Short money is allocated to the opposition parties for their work in the House of Commons based on the number of seats they have. The leader of the opposition is also funded almost £800,000 for the running of their office. (to make up for the fact that they don’t have access to the civil service)
• Cranborne money subsidises the work of scrutiny carried out by the opposition party in the House of Lords
• What do public subsidies not cover?

  Campaigning and election expenses
• How much donations did the Conservative party get during the 6 weeks of the 2019 general election?

  Over £19 million (63% of all donations to political parties)
• How much of Labour’s donations in 2019 came from Trade unions?

  93%
• The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 introduced regulations concerning party funding to encourage greater transparency and fairness. This included

  • Establishing an independent Electoral Commission to record and make public how parties are funded
  • Introduced £30,000 limit to the amount a political party can spend in a constituency during an election
  • Must register large scale donations (over £7500) with the Electoral Commission
  • Must not accept donations from non UK citizens
• What was the cash for honours scandal?

  Reports that certain Labour donors had been elevated to the House of Lords because of donations to the Labour Party.
• What did Blair did as a response to the cash for honours scandal?

  Commissioned the Philips Report (2007) to investigate the case for party funding reform. The report concluded that there was a strong strong case for political parties to be primarily funded through taxation and for a limit of £50,000 to be put on donations from individuals and organisations.
• Why have the recommendations made the Philips Report not been acted upon?

  The Conservative Party, as the largest recipient of donations, is unwilling to lose that advantage over its rivals. Labour is also wary of reforms that would remove the financial support it receives from trade unions.
• In 2019, despite the Brexit Party spending over £4 million (13.5% of total spending), it won no seats. The Scottish National Party received around £25,000 in donations (0.1% of total spending) and won 48 seats. This suggests that the disproportionate financial influence between political parties has little impact in terms of electoral success
• What act limited trade union funding to the Labour party?

  2016 Trade Unions Act