Political parties

Minor Parties→ UKIP + SNP

Some parties such as UKIP, the Brexit Party or the Greens are issue based.

Other such as SNP, the DUP, UUP and Sinn Fein are based in other parts of the uk,

Importance:

-Win seats in Westminster which the government can rely on → can form coalitions Eg: DUP (7 MPs) + TM

-Represent certain locations

-Presence in the HOC → SNP have 59 whereas LibDems have 11 MPs.

-They were often more successful as MEPs → 2019 30% of seats went to the Brexit party

-Significant Regional Governments- Scotland’s First Minister has been SNP since 2007

-They can set an agenda which influence the gov. → UKIP/Green Party

Recall and MPs Act 2015

A recall process can only be triggered if an MP gets a prison sentence of 12 months or less, is suspended from the Commons for more than 10 days, or breaks the law on MP’s expenses. →If 10% of a constituency sign a petition→Forced to a bi-election eg: Matt Hancock

SNP:

-Created in 1943 but didn’t appear until 1960s→

How are parties funded in the UK?

1. Membership Fees- Subscriptions

2. Donations- Donations from individuals , cooperate donations from businesses and institutional donations from pressure groups such as trade unions.

3. Grants- Limited amount of public money made available to the parties in the form of grants.

• Short money-Available to opposition parties to help them with their parliamentary duties, but not with election or campaigning expenses. Calculated on the basis of the number of seats and votes won at the last election.

• Cranborne Money-Similar scheme that operates for the largest and second largest opposition party in the House of Lords.

• The Electoral Commission has £2 million in money from the UK Parliament, to allocate to parties with at least two sittings MPs, to develop policies to include in their election manifestos.

What is PPERA? Is this an improvement? Is this enough?

• PPERA-Political Parties, Elections and Referendum Act of 2000→Updated in 2009

• Aimed to manage party finance by regulating donations and spending, and increasing the transparency about where parties get their funding.

• Established the Electoral Commission to oversee the laws relating to party finance→all parties must submit audited annual accounts which are made public.

• All donations in excess of £7,500 must be declared by parties to the commission and this information is made available for public security.

• Increased amount of Short money available for opposition parties and introduced the Policy Development grant.

• Election spending is capped at £30,000 per constituency.

What can we learn about party funding from the 2019 General Election? Is the system currently fair? Why

Events:

• Six Weeks prior to he 2019 Elections, the parties received £30.7m in donations

-Con-63%

-Labour-18%

-Brexit Party-13.5

• Donations by:

-Individuals-62%

-Company-21%

-Trade Unions-16%

• Main two parties:

-Individual donations made up 71% of all money received by the conservatives compared to only 6% for Labour.

-93% of Labour’s donations came from trade unions and also a healthier stream from large membership rates.

Significance:

• Finances clearly benefit parties.

• The two main parties’ incomes clearly outstripped that of other parties.

• Large reliance on their donors :

  • May 2020, the times revealed that the top 50 political donors had donated £35.5m between them

  • Conservatives received £24.9m

    • Including £3.6m from Lord Bamford (Chairman of JCB) + £1.24 from finance Michael Spencer + £1m from financier Peter Hargreaves and £1 from Tony Gallagher

• Largest Donor: Lord Salisbury £8m to Lib Dems

• Labour: Only £5000 from the top 50 donors but received large donations from trade unions

  • £3m from UNITE

The current system creates uneven playing field.