funding

• The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 required that all parties disclose their in- and outgoings with the Electoral Commission and that they declare large declarations (defined today as over £7500). A maximum of £30k in campaigning costs per constituency party was also introduced.
• The PPERA is enforced with fines. For example the Leave campaign was fined £70k in 2018 for a rule breach.
• The Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 strengthened its predecessor's provisions including limiting major donations to those made by UK residents.
• Labour were traditionally funded by the trade unions, 96% in 1983 but Blair moved towards private donors and Miliband got rid of the automatic affiliation so that this figure had halved by 2016. Their donations rose again under Corbyn.
• In 2019 68% of Conservative donations came from individuals.
• A large proportion of Labour's funding since 2010 has been Commons/Lords short money
• Both parties have been accused of selling peerages. For example Paul Drayson received a peerage having donated £1 million to Labour as well as a £32 million NHS deal for his company in 2002.
• In 1997 the Labour Party received a £1m donation from the chief of F1, Bernie Ecclestone after the sport had been exempted from a ban on tobacco advertising.
• In 2020 an admin error revealed that a £100m PPE deal had been given to a Tory donor.
• Major Tory donor Paul Sykes donated depending on their EU policy, switching to UKIP at times.
• State funding would avoid any bias or expectations from donors, meaning policy is directed purely at constituents, but it could be argued it is a democratic right to financially support a party you believe in.
• State funding that is proportional to the vote would stop parties from purely targeting their campaigning at marginals as they do now.
• Previous funding reforms have had limited success making a move to state funding more attractive.
• State funding could limit spending in general and reduce inequality between parties, however it still be unequal if it is proportional and would only serve to further benefit large partiees.
• State funding would force voters to fund parties they do not agree with through taxpayer money
• By the 2024 general election the Conservatives had taken in 4 times the total amount of donations to MPs and APPGs since the start of the term, twice that of Labour.
• In the run up to the 2019 election, Lord David Sainsbury made the biggest donation in political history of £8 million to the Lib Dems, accounting for over half of their total funding
• Between 2019 and 2024 the average MP received around £25k while Johnson declared £6.5m in donations
• Unite currently make up around 19% of Labour's donations