Political Parties Flashcards
(11 cards)
How are parties funded?
> Mainly through private donations
are granted some public funding
How much are policy development grants?
£2 million to ensure the main parties can hire a policy advisor
What is short money?
Short money is money provided to the opposition parties for their work in the House of Commons, they are allocated via seat numbers. Labour in 2018 was granted £6 million.
How much is the leader of the opposition granted?
> £800,000 in government subsidies
to help them run for office effectively.
Why do most parties turn to donations for their main source of income?
> the government subsides do not cover campaigning and election expenses, for these a party must turn to party membership fees or private donations.
Why is this seen as unfair?
> the Conservative Party get much more funding from private businesses
in the 2nd quarter of 2017 they received double the amount labour did (£25 million)
How are the minor parties underfunded?
> the Conservatives get sums of money from businesses
and the Labour Party get sums of money from trade unions
leaving parties like Green or the Lib Dem’s hopeless in comparison.
What did the political parties, elections and referendums act provide?
> an independent electoral commission was established to monitor how much political parties received and spent.
political parties could only spend £30,000 per constituency
parties must also declare large scale donations (£5,000) to the electoral commission and couldn’t accept donations from non UK citizens.
What was the Phillips report?
> produced in 2007 it argued that there is a strong cause for political parties to be funded through taxation, due to the discrepancies in the amount parties were receiving.
highlighted how public faith was declining in UK democracy as a result of funding scandals.
What was the cash for honours scandal?
Tony Blair elevated certain labour donors to the House of Lords.
What did critics of state funding argue?
> in a free democracy people should be allowed to fund whatever cause they like, be it pressure groups, charities or political parties.
it would be controversial to decide how much political parties received parties can claim
would limit political independence of parties as parties would be seen as servants of the state
contentious to fund extremist groups like the BNP.
