Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Political Parties UK
- Party Funding
- Decline of party membership in
80s&90s = damaging impact for
party finance
- Labour prev
funded by
Trade Unions
- Blair&Kinnock
efforts to reduce
trade unions
damaged Labours
funds
- Began to rely on
wealthy backers
- Cons prev funded
by wealthy
business interests
- Controversy
- Rise of individual
donations in 90s =
view that political
influence could be
bought
- Led to calls for
regulation
- EXAMPLE: Bernie Eccleston's (F1
tycoon) £1mil donation to Lab =
Lab making F1 exempt from
tabacco ad ban at sport events
- Regulation
- PPERA (2000)
- Imposed overall limit on
party spending in GE
campaigns (£30,000 per
constituency)
- Est. spending
limit for
devolved body &
EU Parl elections
- Req parties to declare
all donations over
£5,000 to Electoral
Commission
- Sought to make
parties less reliant
on wealthy
individuals
- PPEA (2009)
- Build on
PPERA regs
- Restricted
donations from
non-UK
residents
- Reduced donation
declaration from
£5,000 to £1,500
- Imposed tighter regs
on spending by
candidates in elec run
up
- Allowed Electoral
Commission to
investigate cases
& impose fines
- Sources of Party funding
- Membership
fees
- Fall in
membership =
reduces income
- Small donations
from members
- Fall in
membership =
lower number
- Large
donations
from donors
- Significant
income esp.
for Cons
- Can be
controversial
- Trade
Unions
(Labour)
- Value reduced by
funding challenges in
Trade Union Act 2016
- State funding
- Designed to
counter financial
advantage of gov
party or large
fund parties
- State funding
- Short money
- State funds paid to
opposition parties in HoC
- Pays for admin costs
- Enables
effective
scrutiny of gov
- Available to opp parties
who get 2 seats or 1 seat
and 150,000 votes
nationally at GE
- 2014-15 Labour got
over £6m
- Cranborne money
- State funds paid
to opposition
parties in HoL
- Pays admin costs
- Enables effective
scrutiny
- 2014-15
Labour got
£500,000
- Policy
Development
Grants
- Any party with sitting
MP granted share of
£2m annual fund to help
policy dev
- Funding for
election campaigns
- State subsidies given go parties
during election campaign to help
with costs
- E.g. TV broadcasts
& postage costs
- Should Parties be state funded?
- YES
- Or else they'll be
funded by wealthy
individuals&interest
groups
- Would allow politicians to
focus on representing
constituencies rather than
courting potential donors
- Parties e.g. Lib Dems
compete on equal financial
footing funding would be on
membership or electoral
performance
- NO
- Taxpayers should
have to fund
parties they
oppose
- Politicians could
become isolated from
real world issues if
denied access from
interest groups
- Parties will always have
unequal resources e.g.
membership levels &
human/material
resources
- Party structure & membership
- Conservatives
- 2018: 124,000 members
- Local & national structure
- Each const. has Cons
Association - help run
campaigns
- Welsh&Scot Cons
party within UK
party
- 1922 Committee
made up of
backbench Cons
MPs
- Cons Campaign
HQ located in
London, HQ of
party
- Board of the
Cons party =
governing body
of party
- National Cons Convention
makes decisions for
voluntary party - const
association chairs,
regional offers, reps from
youth&women org attend
- Choosing party leaders
- 1. MPs vote on candidates, top 2
presented to rest of party
- 2. All party members
vote on top 2, one
vote system, every
vote =
- NOTE: May not voted for by
party membs bc rival withdrew leaving
her unopposed
- Labour
- 2017: 550,000 mebers
- Local & national structure
- Welsh&Scot Lab
party within UK
party
- National Executive
Committee (NEC) =
governing body of
party
- The Parliamentary
Labour Party (PLP)
consists of Lab MPs
- 14 Trade unions
affiliated with Lab
- Many socialist societies/groups
also affiliated
- Each constituency has
Constituency Labour
Party (CLP) - smaller
local branches choose
local council
candidates
- Choosing party leaders
- 1. Candidate must secure
nom of 15% of Parl Lab
Party to qualify for ballot
- 2. Party members & registered
supporters vote on one vote
basis under AV system
- Registered voters
introduced in 2015 were
controversial, people who
paid £3 could vote, raised
to £25 in 2016 to prevent
elections being hijacked
- Lib Dems
- 2018: 99,000
members
- Local & national structure
- Lib Dems use
federal
structure
- Members belong
to local party,
regional party
and nation party
of Eng, Wales or
Scot
- Federal Board = gov
body of Lib Dems,
brings together
national parties
- Parliamentary
party in HoC
make up of Lib
Dem MPs
- Members can also
join Specified
Associated Orgs
(SAOs) with
specific
focus/identity e.g.
Ethnic Minority
Liberal Democrats
and can submit
motions to party
conference
- Choosing party leaders
- 1. Candidate must
secure nom of 20 local
parties or 200 party
members to qualify
for ballot
- 2. Party members vote on
one vote basis under AV
system
- Choosing Parliamentary candidates (MPs)
- 3 main parties use similar procedure
- 1. Candidate approved by
central org of party
- 2. Local party selects
candidates from central
party list
- 3. Constituency
members vote to select
parl candidate
- L, C & LD traditionally
struggle with
diversity of
candidates
- Labour = All women
shortlists, introduced 1993
- led to 101 female Lab
MPs in 1997
- Conservatives =
priority lists,
public hustings
and open
primaries
- Priority lists =
candidates
prepared from
priority
candidates e.g.
minorities -
candidates
offered to local
party when
drawing up
shortlist
- Public
Hustings =
events where
Parl
candidates
answer Q's
on policy in
front of
public &
party
members
- Open
primaries =
elections
where any
registered
voter can
choose to vote,
not just party
members
- Establishing Party Policy
- Conservatives
- Top down process;
leaders team mostly
decide what goes in
manifesto
- Major 1992: "It
was all me"
- Delegates at party
conference don't vote
on policy
- Labour
- National Policy
Forum (reps from
across party) agree
direction of
policy&arrange policy
commission
- Policies voted on at
party conference
- Leader can use
personal authority to
win support of policies
at conference
- Lib Dems
- Federal Policy
Committee (mix of
MPs and other
members) dev policy
to be put forward at
party conference
held x2 a year
- Any member can
make policy proposal
to party conference
- Conference
votes on all
policies and all
members can
vote