Political parties

• Features of Political Parties

  1. Parties aim to become a Gov. by putting candidates up for election and mobilising support
  2. Parties are organised bodies with formal membership
  3. Parties typically adopt broad-issue focus addressing major issues of government policy
  4. To varying degrees, Parties are united by shared political preferences and a shared ideological identity
• Functions of Political Parties

  • Representation
  • Participation
  • Recruiting office holders
  • Formulating policy
  • Providing Gov.
• Representation

  Each party has a set of broad ideas to represent people's beliefs
• Representation


  • Con. = rightwing
  • Lab. = Leftwing
• Participation

  To win elections parties must have people participate within politics
• Participation

  • Labour in 2015 increased its membership under Corbyn by lowering membership prices to £3
• Recruiting office holders


  Party membership can lead to recruitment for public office
• Recruiting office holders

  • Before the 2015 election conservative activists in Thirsk and Malton and in south Suffolk didn't allow the sitting MPs to stand again as candidates
• Formulating policy


  Parties generate the ideas that embody the party and put them forward before an election in a manifesto
• Formulating policy

  • Boris Johnsons 'levelling-up' project in the 2019 manifesto
• Providing Gov.

  The winning party of elections gets the chance to form its government except in cases where a PM resigns and someone has to step up
• Providing Gov.

  • Truss for Bo Jo
• How are the parties funded?

  • The state pays MPs through Taxation (£86,500 as of April 2023)
  • Parties must meet their election costs through donations, memberships and subscriptions
  • special state provision to support the opposition "Short Money"
• Party funding

  Tory - historically has been funded by big businesses

  Labour - Historically funded by trade unions, Until Blair when it was semi-replaced with donations from successful individuals

  LibDems - criticised opponents for being bankrolled by the wealthy as they are the least funded
• Downsides to funding

  • Accused of offering political honours, such as places in the houses of lords to the most generous benefactors = Undemocratic
  • "Cash for peerages" Scandal 2006 (several wealthy individuals had been given peerages after loaning money to the Labour Party, the party was seen to be exploiting a loophole, Blair and two advisers were questioned by police, no charges were pressed but changes to party funding rules were changed in the run-up to the 2010 election)
• Party Funding levels 2016

  Labour - 49 Million

  Tory - 28 Million

  Lib Dem - 8 Million

  SNP - 4 Million

  UKIP - 3 Million

  Other - 4 Million
• Donation rules

  The UK political parties can only accept donations from 'permissable' sources

  • someone on the UK electoral register
  • A UK registered company
  • A registered political party
  • A registered trade union or society

  there is no limit to what someone can donate it is how much the party spends that is limited
• Case Study: Blair and Ecclestone

  Blair faced criticism in 1997 following the revelation that Bernie Ecclestone had donated £1 Million to the Labour Party, it was alleged that this was related to the ban on tobacco advertisment in F1, Blair had to explain himself on national TV and said he is a "Pretty straight sort of guy", and the money was returned
• A Case for Reform - 2000 Political Party Election Act

  • set up an independent electoral commission to supervise party spending
  • capped at £30,000 per constituency
  • donations of over £5,000 (UK wide) and £1,000(constituency) have to be declared
• Arguments FOR State Funding

  1. Parties play an important role in Representative democracy and, therefore deserve state funding
  2. Public funding would remove the great disparity between resources available to the parties
  3. If the state matched donations by party members it would encourage participation by the public
  4. It would curb the possible corrupt influence of private backers on party policy
• Arguments AGAINST state funding

  1. Increased state funding could lead to calls for greater state regulation, possibly reducing parties independence
  2. It is hard to decide how much support a party should have to qualify for funding
  3. Public funding could isolate parties from the wishes of voters
  4. Taxpayers would resent compulsory contributions to the parties they do not like