Political parties

• SNP won 56/59 seats in Scotland In the 2015 General Election.
• In 2015, UKIP won 12.6% of the popular vote, yet only 1 seat.
• In 2019, Labour and Conservative won 76% of the popular vote between them.
• In the 2019 election, Green Party won 2.7% of the vote but just 1 seat. Conversely, SNP won 3.9% of the vote and 48 seats.
• Lord Cruddas donated £500,000 to the Conservative Party just days after being appointed to the House of Lords.
• There is up to £2 million per party available in grants from the Electoral Commission, plus Short money, which grants funds to parties for research, depending on their size.
• State funding could prevent cash for honours scandals. Almost a quarter of HoL appointees over the last decade were party donors.
• The £1 million donation from Bernie Ecclestone to the Labour party in 1997 appeared to have influence on their policy surrounding tobacco advertising.
• State funding may introduce issues such as too much state regulation, and a distribution controversies.
• In the 2024 general election, Liberal Democrats won 71 seats. This supports evidence for a growing multi-party system.
• In the 2024 General election Reform UK won 5 seats and Green won 4. This suggests that smaller parties can gain influence when they concentrate their campaigning on a geographical level.
• In 2024, Reform UK may have cost the conservatives 80 seats, by splitting the right-wing vote.
• In 2024, the SNP were viewed as scandal-ridden, with 3 different leaders in 14 months. They only won 9 seats, which is a sharp decrease from their 48.
• Boris Johnson’s partygate scandal, as well as Chris Pincher’s allegations, Liz Truss’ disastrous tax-cutting mini-budget meant that the public lost faith in the Conservative Party to lead with competence.
• Labour’s 2024 manifesto promises included adding VAT to private school fees, which does not directly affect the bulk of the population.
• In 2024, Labour proposed to set up a state-owned electricity generation company, Great British Energy, in line with their pledge to decarbonise the economy.
• Sunak’s pledge to introduce national service for 18 year olds failed to engage with older Reform UK voters which it was attempting to win back.
• In 2019, the Brexit party agreed to not contest in Conservative-held seats. However, in 2024 Reform claimed that they would run candidates all over the country.
• • PPERA introduced party spending limits at general elections to £30,000 for each constituency.
• Labour have lost 11% of their membership since the 2024 GE
• In 2024, the Labour party were donated almost £10 million more than the Conservatives.