UK pol last min

• in 2019 trade unions gave over 5 million to labour which was the majority of their donation total. Unite gave 4 million of this
• Tory donor Frank Hester has given over 10 million in total and Sunak is being called to return the most recent 5 million personal donation as Hester made racist comments about Dianne Abbott
• Lindsay Hoyle recently broke convention in 2024 by allowing a vote on a Labour amendment to the SNPs ceasefire motion even though it was the SNP's official opposition day
• the 2019 election turnout for 18-24 year olds was 47%
• the 2019 election turnout for 65+ year olds was 74%
• In 2019 the Tories/Labour won 75% of the vote share but 87% of the seats
• in 2018 1.8m people signed a petition to stop Trump making a state visit to the UK. The government changed it to a working visit in response to this.
• The government only accepts 40% of select committee recommendations.
• Only 0.5% of opposition amendments to bills in the committee stage are accepted.
• Labour party membership is 400,000 but was 1m in the 50s
• 2013 Marriage Act legalised same sex marriage in the UK
• Kier Starmer cut his £28bn green pledge in half in 2024
• in 2000 PPERA limited spending by parties on campaigns to £30,000 per constituency and established the Electoral Commission to regulate this
• the 2009 Political parties and elections act (PPEA) made it so that donations over $7,500 had to be reported to the Election Commission and only those living in the UK can donate
• UK parties can be state funded by Policy development grants or can receive short (commons) or Cranbourne (Lords) money to aid opposition work
• In 2023 the SC ruled that Rwanda is not a safe country. The UK gov are trying to repeal this ruling with a Safety of Rwanda Bill which repeals parts of the HRA without us withdrawing from the ECHR.
• Tony Blair’s government was only defeated 4 times during the 10 years he was in power due to his large majority 
• on the local level there are constituency labour parties, local conservative associations and local Lib Dem branches that coordinate local campaigns and pick MP candidates
• the Lib Dem federal board is the national governing body and has members directly elected by party members
• the Labour National Executive Committee has final say over candidates and can expel members. There are 40 members, some are elected by party members and some are trade unions or already elected reps
• Board of the conservative party runs the party on the day to day and is made up of reps. The conservative party forum enables grassroots suggestion of policy
• the lib dems formulate policy at national and regional conferences where ordinary members have much more of a say
• In 2019 Boris Johnson removed the whip from 21 Tory rebels who voted for MPs to take control of the Brexit process against their party
• statutory instruments or SIs are small secondary legislation changes to bills
• Cameron passed the Marriage Act in 2013. However, 136 conservative MPs voted against it when cameron suspended collective responsibility, suggesting the party has not completely moved to social liberalism
• Boris Johnson spent £70 billion on the COVID furlough scheme which shows that the conservative party are moving away from Thatcherite individual responsibility ideas
• Cameron privatised royal mail in 2013, showing that the conservatives are still committed to privatisation
• Johnson's government banned conversion therapy in 2022
• Boris Johnson undermined the authority of the Privileges committee by claiming that the committee mounted a 'witch hunt' 'determined to drive me out of parliament'
• Kier Starmer proposed expelling Corbyn and preventing him running as a labour candidate to the National Executive Committee who then approved it
• in 2020 Corbyn was suspended from the Labour party for anti-semitism and is now an independent MP, having had his whip removed
• A8 countries joined the EU in 2004
• before the 2019 election, 7 labour backbenchers defected, claiming institutional antisemitism within the party
• in the 2019 election Johnson promised not to raise VAT, national insurance or income tax while Corbyn promised to nationalise big 6 energy firms and increase minimum wage to £10 an hour
• Johnson won an 80 seat majority in 2019
• In 2019 Labour promised a 2nd referendum where voters could either pick Remain or vote for a new negotiated deal
• The Lib Dems wanted to rejoin the EU without a referendum
• circumstances/issues that affected the 1997 election were divisions in the Tory party over Europe, Major leading a minority gov, economic crisis in 1992 which made tories look fiscally irresponsible and 18 years of Tory government, meaning people wanted change
• In 1997 defence minister and potential next Tory party leader Michael Portillo lost his seat which was an embarrassment
• Blair moved away from socialism in the 1997 election, promising not to raise income tax to appeal to the mondeo man