Political Parties UK

Party Funding
1. Decline of party membership in 80s&90s = damaging impact for party finance
  1. Labour prev funded by Trade Unions
    1. Blair&Kinnock efforts to reduce trade unions damaged Labours funds
      1. Began to rely on wealthy backers
  2. Cons prev funded by wealthy business interests
2. Controversy
  1. Rise of individual donations in 90s = view that political influence could be bought
    1. Led to calls for regulation
  2. EXAMPLE: Bernie Eccleston's (F1 tycoon) £1mil donation to Lab = Lab making F1 exempt from tabacco ad ban at sport events
3. Regulation
  1. PPERA (2000)
    1. Imposed overall limit on party spending in GE campaigns (£30,000 per constituency)
    2. Est. spending limit for devolved body & EU Parl elections
    3. Req parties to declare all donations over £5,000 to Electoral Commission
      1. Sought to make parties less reliant on wealthy individuals
    4. PPEA (2009)
      1. Build on PPERA regs
      2. Restricted donations from non-UK residents
      3. Reduced donation declaration from £5,000 to £1,500
      4. Imposed tighter regs on spending by candidates in elec run up
      5. Allowed Electoral Commission to investigate cases & impose fines
4. Sources of Party funding
  1. Membership fees
    1. Fall in membership = reduces income
  2. Small donations from members
    1. Fall in membership = lower number
  3. Large donations from donors
    1. Significant income esp. for Cons
    2. Can be controversial
  4. Trade Unions (Labour)
    1. Value reduced by funding challenges in Trade Union Act 2016
  5. State funding
    1. Designed to counter financial advantage of gov party or large fund parties
5. State funding
  1. Short money
    1. State funds paid to opposition parties in HoC
      1. Pays for admin costs
        Enables effective scrutiny of gov
    2. Available to opp parties who get 2 seats or 1 seat and 150,000 votes nationally at GE
    3. 2014-15 Labour got over £6m
  2. Cranborne money
    1. State funds paid to opposition parties in HoL
      1. Pays admin costs
    2. Enables effective scrutiny
    3. 2014-15 Labour got £500,000
  3. Policy Development Grants
    1. Any party with sitting MP granted share of £2m annual fund to help policy dev
  4. Funding for election campaigns
    1. State subsidies given go parties during election campaign to help with costs
      1. E.g. TV broadcasts & postage costs
  5. Should Parties be state funded?
    1. YES
      1. Or else they'll be funded by wealthy individuals&interest groups
      2. Would allow politicians to focus on representing constituencies rather than courting potential donors
      3. Parties e.g. Lib Dems compete on equal financial footing funding would be on membership or electoral performance
    2. NO
      1. Taxpayers should have to fund parties they oppose
      2. Politicians could become isolated from real world issues if denied access from interest groups
      3. Parties will always have unequal resources e.g. membership levels & human/material resources
Party structure & membership
1. Conservatives
  1. 2018: 124,000 members
  2. Local & national structure
    1. Each const. has Cons Association - help run campaigns
    2. Welsh&Scot Cons party within UK party
    3. 1922 Committee made up of backbench Cons MPs
    4. Cons Campaign HQ located in London, HQ of party
    5. Board of the Cons party = governing body of party
    6. National Cons Convention makes decisions for voluntary party - const association chairs, regional offers, reps from youth&women org attend
  3. Choosing party leaders
    1. 1. MPs vote on candidates, top 2 presented to rest of party
    2. 2. All party members vote on top 2, one vote system, every vote =
    3. NOTE: May not voted for by party membs bc rival withdrew leaving her unopposed
2. Labour
  1. 2017: 550,000 mebers
  2. Local & national structure
    1. Welsh&Scot Lab party within UK party
    2. National Executive Committee (NEC) = governing body of party
    3. The Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) consists of Lab MPs
    4. 14 Trade unions affiliated with Lab
      1. Many socialist societies/groups also affiliated
    5. Each constituency has Constituency Labour Party (CLP) - smaller local branches choose local council candidates
  3. Choosing party leaders
    1. 1. Candidate must secure nom of 15% of Parl Lab Party to qualify for ballot
      1. 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
3. Lib Dems
  1. 2018: 99,000 members
  2. Local & national structure
    1. Lib Dems use federal structure
    2. Members belong to local party, regional party and nation party of Eng, Wales or Scot
    3. Federal Board = gov body of Lib Dems, brings together national parties
    4. Parliamentary party in HoC make up of Lib Dem MPs
    5. 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
  3. Choosing party leaders
    1. 1. Candidate must secure nom of 20 local parties or 200 party members to qualify for ballot
      1. 2. Party members vote on one vote basis under AV system
Choosing Parliamentary candidates (MPs)
1. 3 main parties use similar procedure
  1. 1. Candidate approved by central org of party
  2. 2. Local party selects candidates from central party list
  3. 3. Constituency members vote to select parl candidate
2. L, C & LD traditionally struggle with diversity of candidates
  1. Labour = All women shortlists, introduced 1993
    1. led to 101 female Lab MPs in 1997
  2. Conservatives = priority lists, public hustings and open primaries
    1. Priority lists = candidates prepared from priority candidates e.g. minorities - candidates offered to local party when drawing up shortlist
    2. Public Hustings = events where Parl candidates answer Q's on policy in front of public & party members
    3. Open primaries = elections where any registered voter can choose to vote, not just party members
Establishing Party Policy
1. Conservatives
  1. Top down process; leaders team mostly decide what goes in manifesto
    1. Major 1992: "It was all me"
  2. Delegates at party conference don't vote on policy
2. Labour
  1. National Policy Forum (reps from across party) agree direction of policy&arrange policy commission
  2. Policies voted on at party conference
  3. Leader can use personal authority to win support of policies at conference
3. Lib Dems
  1. Federal Policy Committee (mix of MPs and other members) dev policy to be put forward at party conference held x2 a year
  2. Any member can make policy proposal to party conference
  3. Conference votes on all policies and all members can vote

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Political Parties UK

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	Created by beth !! about 5 years ago