Political Parties UK

Political Parties UK

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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