Fundings - reasons why it can be controversial

Funding favours large parties

• Funding, both public and private, massively favours the two largest parties

  • This disadvantages smaller parties, who need the money to fight elections

• Political inequality and a two-party system are then created

Unaccountable political influence

• Large donors who donate to parties are both a hidden form of influence and unaccountable

• Parties cannot propose/change policies/leglisation due to a donation but donors do expect a return for their investment

  • E.g. trade unions for Labour, business interests for the Tories

Corruption

• Funding can be morally or legally corrupt

• Donors may expect an honour for their donation (peerage, knighthood) - ‘cash for honours’

  • No proof of existence but investigated by police in 2006-7

    • Not taken any further by CPS but suspicions linger

Impact of decreasing membership on this issues

• Parties are more and more reliant on donors

• Therefore, there is more opportunity for buying political influence and corruption

Labour and trade unions

• Union members’ subscription fees are often spent on donations to the Labour party

• Members are not given a clear enough as to if their subscriptions should be spent on this

2020 - Unite union and antisemitism payouts

• Reviewing donations to the party due to antisemitism crisis

• Starmer decided to pay 6 figure damages to ex-staffers who claimed lack of proper dealing with antisemtisim in the party

  • Unite union does not agree that member’s money should be spent in this way

2019 - Conservative fundraising

• Tories passed their £25m record (from 2017) of money raised in the run up to an election

2020 - number of top 100 political donors that supported the Conservative party

• 44 (44%)