Political Parties case studies

• 2019 - The Conservatives raised £19.4m. This was over 60% of the total amount raised by all the parties
• 2019 - Labour raised the second highest amount – £5.4m
• 2019 - The Brexit Party received over £4m – the third highest. But they failed to win any seats
• 2019 - The Green Party raised just £242,000
• 2017 - The Conservatives raised £18.6m. This was more than Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined
• 2017 - Labour raised £11m
• In 2019, the Conservatives spent nearly £6m on a mail campaign. This was more than Labour spent on their whole campaign. The Tories also spent £1m on Facebook adverts in 2019 and £2m in 2017
• Companies linked to Tory donors were awarded government contracts worth £880 million during the Covid pandemic
• Boris Johnson was criticised for driving a JCB digger in a 2019 election stunt; the company’s chair, Anthony Bamford, had donated millions to the Conservative Party
• A funding scandal led to the resignation and arrest of both the SNP’s chief executive and treasurer in 2023
• Some in the U.K. agree with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in 2010 that restricting donations is a breach of free speech in the United States
• The Brexit Party’s successful fundraising in 2019 shows that smaller parties can attract significant sums of money. While the fact that the SNP won 48 more seats than the Brexit Party (despite raising only around 5% of their total) suggests that funding does not necessarily translate into performance
• In the 2015 general election, the two main parties shared only 67.2% of the vote – a record low
• Theresa May signed a confidence and supply deal with Northern Ireland’s DUP in 2017. As part of the agreement, the DUP negotiated an extra £1bn in infrastructure spending for Northern Ireland
• The Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservatives from 2010-2015. This gave them five Cabinet ministers. In recent years, the Lib Dems have won by-elections in formerly safe Conservative seats like Somerton and Frome and North Shropshire
• The SNP has been the biggest party in the Scottish Parliament since 2007. In recent general elections to the U.K. Parliament in Westminster, the SNP has replaced Labour as the biggest party in Scotland (winning 56 out 59 available seats in 2015). The SNP’s rise led to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum
• The Scottish Green Party currently has two ministers in the devolved Scottish government
• Neither Labour nor the Conservatives stand in Northern Ireland (in general or devolved elections). Sinn Fein and the DUP are consistently the two most successful parties in Northern Ireland
• The last two European Parliament elections to be held in the U.K. were won by UKIP (in 2014) and the Brexit Party (in 2019). The threat posed by UKIP had a big influence on David Cameron’s decision to hold a Brexit referendum
• The two main parties’ share of the vote increased to 76% in 2017, and then to 82% in 2019
• Only three elections since 1929 have failed to produce a Conservative or Labour majority government
• After the 2019 general election, Labour and the Conservatives shared 87% of the seats in the House of Commons. The Liberal Democrats have not won more than 12 seats since 2010
• Labour has been the biggest party in Wales since the first devolved election in 1999
• In 2019, Boris Johnson refused to take part in a television debate with any other party leaders except Jeremy Corbyn
• The Conservatives and Labour accounted for over 70% of the fundraising total for the 2019 general election
• UKIP has only ever had two MPs in the House of Commons. The Brexit Party never held a seat in the House of Commons.
• Boris Johnson One Nation - Johnson and Sunak (then his Chancellor) committed over £70 billion to the furlough scheme, which saw the state pay workers whose jobs were affected by the pandemic. The government also temporarily increased welfare payments by £20 per week. And accepted Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign
• Boris Johnson One Nation - The Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. And then Johnson’s government announced significant funding increases for renewable energy and electric vehicles
• Boris Johnson One Nation - Levelling up meant disadvantaged parts of England were encouraged to bid for increased funding to stimulate economic growth
• Boris Johnson One Nation - To fund support for households struggling with rising bills, Johnson’s government imposed a 25% windfall tax on energy companies’ profits in 2022
• Boris Johnson Thatcherite - Under Johnson (and his successors), welfare wasn’t linked to inflation, meaning that the overall value of payments has fallen
• Boris Johnson Thatcherite - Johnson approved Priti Patel’s plan to deport all single male asylum seekers to Rwanda
• Boris Johnson Thatcherite - During the Covid pandemic, the Johnson government reduced spending on foreign aid from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5%
• Boris Johnson Thatcherite - Johnson’s Brexit deal saw the U.K. leave the European Union, the single market, and the customs union
• Rishi Sunak Thatcherite - Sunak vetoed the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which would have allowed 16-18-year-olds to change their gender identity without a medical diagnosis
• Rishi Sunak Thatcherite - Sunak’s government has pursued a tougher approach to law and order, including the Public Order Act 2023
• Rishi Sunak Thatcherite - Suella Braverman, Sunak’s Home Secretary, has continued Priti Patel’s Rwanda plan
• Liz Truss Thatcherite - Just a few weeks after becoming Prime Minister, Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced plans to cut the top rate of income tax from 45% to 40%
• Rishi Sunak One Nation - Sunak reverted Truss' tax cuts and his chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, increased corporation tax for larger companies from 19% to 25% as well as announcing plans for the state to help with the costs of childcare
• Jeremy Corbyn Hard Left - His 2017 and 2019 manifestoes promised to nationalise rail, energy, and water