Political Parties

Political Parties have 5 main functions in the UK’s democracy:

  1. selecting candidates and leaders

  2. creating policy

  3. encouraging political participation

  4. representation

  5. educating voters about the impact of policy and importance of voting

The UK’s party system has 3 main features:

  1. long term dominance by the Conservatives and Labour

  2. parties are mostly self funding

  3. the two main parties have several factions which span from left (Labour) to right (Conservatives)

Left Wing - pro-state intervention in the economy and society to increase equality

Right Wing - minimal state intervention in the economy and a return to traditional social values

The UK is seen as a two-party system:

  1. Only three elections since 1929 have failed to produce a Tory/Labour majority government

  2. After the 2019 GE, Tories and Labour shared 87% of seats in Commons

  3. Labour has been the biggest party in Wales since the first devolved election in 1999

  4. Tories and Labour accounted for over 80% of the combined fundraising total across all parties for the 2019 GE

  5. In 2024, Labour won majority of the Scottish seats in the GE after a 10 year period of them being behind the SNP

The UK is not seen as a two-party system:

  1. between 2015 and 2024, the SNP replaced Labour as the biggest party in Scotland in GE to UK parliament

  2. in the 2024 GE, Tories and Labour shared 57% of the vote - a record low

  3. neither Tories nor Labour stand in Northern Ireland in devolved or general elections - Sinn Fein and DUP are the two biggest parties

  4. Reform UK finished 3rd in popular vote with 14% making them the 3rd largest party by votes

  5. Wales and Scotland example shows a territorially fragmented party system as Scotland have been dominated by the SNP and Wales have had strong representation from Plaid Cymru