Recent examples

Passage of terminally ill adults end of life bill -representative democracy

  • Introduced by Kim Leadbetter as a Private members bill and is currently as of 2026 stalled in the house of lords

  • Highlights parliament legislative function (backbenchers propose significant changes to the law and representative function as it was a free vote so MPs could vote on their conscience

Labour Accused of Cronyism due to lord Alli and ‘freebiegate’ - Media and dem deficit

Summer 2024, UK Labour gov were involved in a significant controversy involving prominent donor Lord Waheed Alli.

  • Dubbed ‘freebiegate’ this revealed PM had accepted substantial gifts from Alli including clothing and eyewear valued at over £16,000 some of which were not declared

  • Alli as was granted temporary security pass to Downing street which he used to organise post-election event

  • Controversial following their electoral victory in 2024 and led to allegations of cronyism undermining public trust in politicians and reinforcing perceptions of democratic deficit, those with money can influence politics

  • Media can hold gov to account as well, exposed by freedom of information requests. by media outlets.

Labour’s increasingly right wing immigration policy - political parties and rights in context

Jan 2025- UK published Border Security, asylum and Immigration Bill which introduces counter terror style powers to ‘smash the people smuggling gangs’

Feb 2025 - Government announced that it would make it impossible for a refugee who arrives in the UK on a small boat to become a british citizen.

  • Shift in Labour party policies to a more stricter, right wing approach to immigration having previously been opposed to safety of rwanda act 2024 which they scrapped

Shows the impact of minor parties on gov policy- Reform UK has increased in its poll ratings considerably since the election especially in red wall areas.

  • Reform came second to labour in 89 seats allowing them to threaten the ‘spoliler effect’

  • Pushed strong anti immigration message and have growing public support which pushed labour to take right wing stance

Minor parties- reforms polling lead

  • Since 2024 reform uk have seen a massive increase in their support in UK voting intention polls

  • Jan 2025 YouGov poll the party came second place with 25% compared to labours 26% and overtaken cons in terms of party membership

Put pressure on major parties and driven issues such as immigration up the political agenda

reform 14 apr want to be opposition to snp in scotland and believe they can beat them.

UK is increasingly a multiparty party system and highlights indirect influence over policy that minor parties can have

Electoral systems- 2024 election

  • Least proportional election result in british history

  • Labour and Lib dems performed better than in 2019 despite their vote shares marginally increasing - Labour won landslide 411 seats despite 34% of the vote and lib dems got 72 seats with 12.2% of the vote

  • Minor parties increased their share of the vote significantly from 12.7% in 2019 to 30.4% in 2024

-Reform UK got 14% of the vote but 5 MPs

-Green party got 7% of the vote but 4 MPs

Mainly due to tactical voting which meant labour and lib dem had more success fptp

Pressure groups - changing insider/outside status

NFU are an example of moving between insider and outsider status as a pressure group

  • NFU under conservative government were able to wield significant policy as Rishi Sunak in 2024 attended their annual conference and pledged to protect British farming in the agricultural market

  • Since Labour have been in office, their influence over policy has declined (as labour performed less well in rural seats)- In 2024 Budget, rachel reeves introduced a tax of 20% on inherited farming assets over £1 million which upset farmers significantly

  • Pressure groups highly dependent on government

Pressure groups - tech companies

Tech companies have been meeting with government ministers at a rate of more than once per working day

  • Using the government in their favour and have influence/power over the government

  • Tech companies are becoming more of an insider group like google who had more than 100 ministerial meetings.

Abolition to jury trials- David Lammy proposed this in attempt to deal with backlog of cases. However this would disadvantage people of colour and lead to more miscarriages of justice. Black women are 22% more likely to be found guilty at the magistrates court than white women.

Rights- Clashes with right to fair trial and takes away individual right to jury trials

Pressure groups- Charity Appeal - fought for Andrew Malkinsons murder conviction and had it overturned disagree with the decision.

Labour party- Labour ditches day-one protection from unfair dismissal in U turn

Plan to introduce rights after 6 months instead of ‘day one’

  • Appeared to go against their manifesto and the employment rights improvement, giving in to businesses

  • Government mandate - doing what they think is best for the public and going against what they promised.

Badenoch says teaching boys about misogny shouldn’t be a priority because migrants are more dangerous to woman and girls

Conservative party are very right leaning at the moment in terms of their policies with immigration. Right wing policies

Party funding - Overseas political funding capped (£100,000) and crypto donations blocked

  • Hugely affects reform uk as this curbs their future donations since they received £12 million in the past year form Thailand based investor christopher harbone and funding from donors in monaco.

  • Also reform are the only major party to receive donations in crypto currency