Political Parties Flashcards
Party Funding, Major Parties and Minor Parties
1
Q
What are political parties?
A
It is a group of people drawn together by a broad ideology, even if they don’t have identical views. Most parties aspire to form a gov and enact a range of policy commitments. Some parties, such as UKIP, are mainly focused around a single issue but they normally develop a broader set of policies to grow their supporter base.
2
Q
What role do Political Parties play?
A
- They represent the views of the people with a certain set of common beliefs.
- They encourage political participation among the public through voting, joining parties and supporting them through funding and spreading the message. Party members can usually select candidates and play a role in selecting the leader.
- Parties recruit future politicians and leaders
- Parties also formulate policies to deliver on the ideas they stand for.
- Parties who stand in elections provide govs and run the country if they are successful.
3
Q
What is the political spectrum?
A
It is a way of measuring and describing the overall policy positions of different political parties. The key division between the Labour and Conservative party was on the left-right dimension, with the Labs being left-wing and the Cons being right-wing.
4
Q
What are the key principles of left-wing parties?
A
- Desire change, reform and alteration to the way society operates. In favour of a large state and a large welfare state = High taxes and high public spending.
- Includes socialists who are critical of capitalism and free market economies.
- Have tended to be on the ‘right side’ of social issues.
5
Q
What are key principles of right-wing parties?
A
- Support conservation of the status quo and little or no change.
- Stress the importance of order stability, hierarchy and private property.
- In favour of minimal gov, individualism and self determination = lower taxes, lower public spending.
6
Q
What are the two types of parties?
A
Major/Mainstream parties:
- Run candidates in all constituencies, develop policies in all areas of policy and realistically attempt to form a gov. E.g. Lab and Con.
Minority Parties:
- have very little chance of winning and may be able to enter gov as a minor partner in a coalition gov/confidence and supply arrangement.
- Some parties only run in certain constituencies such as Nationalist parties.
- Within minority parties, there are single-issue and nationalist parties (like UKIP/Green and the SNP/Plaid Cymru/Sinn Fein)
7
Q
Why do political parties need funding?
A
- In order to carry out a number of key functions such as fighting elections with advertising and campaigning, holding party conferences, carrying out research and developing manifestos, employing advisers and staff.
8
Q
What were the top 5 total incomes of political parties in the UK in 2024?
A
- Conservatives: £59 Million
- Labour: £59 Million
- Lib Dem: £8 Million
- SNP: £5 Million
- Green: £4 Million
(Rounded to the nearest million)
9
Q
How are parties currently funded? (4 points with evidence)
A
- Membership Subscriptions: Members pay monthly subscriptions. In 2025, Labour party members commonly pay around £5.88 per month. In 2021, 35% of their income came from membership fees. On the other hand, conservative memberships are on standard £3.50 a month. In 2021, 6.5% of their total income was from membership fees. This shows how if memberships decline, party finance suffers.
- Trade Unions: The Labour Party receives significant funding from trade unions. In 2021, they received around 13% of their total income from them. HOWEVER, the cons passed the Trade Unions Act 2016 which permitted TU members from opting out from making payments to political influences which affected Labour.
- Local Constituency funding: political parties receive a small amount through this and is usually spent on local advertising and campaigns. For example, in 2021, Labour raised £200,000 through this.
- Public Funding: most of it is available to the opposition as they lack the support of the civil service. ‘Short Money’ is intended to support parties to carry out parliamentary business including policy research and to cover staff salaries and advisers. Only oppositions that have a minimum of 2 seats in the house of commons receive this.
There is also ‘Cranbourne money’ which supports the office of the leader of the opposition and policy development grants (for the government). In 2021, Labour received 15.5% of their income from public funding. 75% of it was short money. In 2021/22, they received £8 Million (rounded) and the conservative party received £450,000. - Donations from people and rich individuals. E.g. Lord Sainsbury and his donations from Blair to Milliband. Stopped with Corbyn. And then with Starmer, he donated £2M in early 2023. For Con, they also receive a lot, Johnson raised £56M in 2019. In 2021, Cons = 65% from donations, Lab = 22%.
10
Q
What are the concerns over party funding in the UK?
A
- There are worries that rich donors are able to buy political influence, which is highly undemocratic, and there have been a number of scandals in relation to party funding across a range of parties. for example, both the labour party and the conservative party have been accused of giving places in the HoL to donors.
11
Q
What are 4 scandals in relation to party funding in the UK? (2 per party)
A
- Cash for Peerages: In 2006-7, there was a scandal concerning a possible link between individuals who had loaned significant amount to the Labour Party and these individuals being nominated by PM Blair for life peerages in the HoL.
- Bernie Ecclestone Affair: Within months of Blair becoming PM in 1997, he faced criticism following the revelation that Ecclestone, Chief of F1, had donated £1M to Lab. It was alleged that he had delayed the implementation of tobacco advertising in the sport F1 because of this. Blair had to justify himself on TV and say the events weren’t connected and the money was consequently returned.
- Lord Cruddas: Billionaire Conservative Lord Cruddas was made a peer in the HoL in 2021 just days after he had donated £500,000 to the Cons, the largest amount he ever donated. He was made a peer by Johnson despite the fact that he failed the appt commission vetting process which Johnson overruled.
- Russian Influence in the Con Party: When Johnson was in power, over £2M was linked back to Russia, raising major security concerns. This included Lebedev who was made a peer by Johnson.
12
Q
What are the arguments for state funding?
A
- Parties are key to representing the public and to upholding democracy and therefore deserve effective funding.
- State-funding would remove the difference in resources available to the parties. For example, Labour and Con having the advantage. The undemocratic two-party system would be challenged.
- Parties and politicians could focus more on representing the public and effectively governing rather than focusing on raising money and pleasing donors. It would also prevent other parties from trying to limit the funding of their oppositions, like the Cons tried to with the TU Act 2016.
- It would avoid giving influence to people who have more money and would avoid scandals. It would allow everything to be more transparent. This therefore upholds democracy
13
Q
What are the arguments against state funding?
A
- The limited public funding available (short money and cranbourne money) currently ensures that parties are independent from the state, and therefore the party currently in power. State funding could threat the fairness of an election and therefore, democracy.
- As the parties would no longer need to seek financial support, it could isolate and separate parties from their members and the wishes of the public. Which could affect legitimacy and democracy.
- It would cost the taxpayer and the state a significant amount per year which people won’t really want to pay because they won’t want to indirectly fund parties they don’t support or candidates they don’t trust. Donations are a way for people to participate and express their opinion which upholds democracy and emphasises legitimacy.
- if state funding were to be based on the performance of past elections, then it gives no opportunity for a pluralist democracy since only Labour and Conservative parties have ever been truly successful.
14
Q
What were the origins of the Labour Party?
A
- It was founded in 1900 by a group of socialist societies and TUs, with the original purpose of getting more working class MPs into parliament, so that they could push their interests.
- Traditionally, the politically active working class had supported the Liberal Party, however by the 20th Century, they felt they needed a party specifically concerned with their interests. In the Party’s 1918 Constitution, clause IV committed it to campaign for the ‘common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange’. (Socialism).
- With the expansion of the franchise to include the WC, they were able to succeed electorally.
15
Q
What was Old Labour?
A
- Clement Atlee’s 1945 gov was the first one in which Labour had a parliamentary majority and the first one that was able to make important changes.
- These included the nationalisation of coal, railways, power, steel and the civil aviation. The NHS etc.
- Although Labour govs between 1945 and 1979 were described as socialist, they were more of a moderate version - social democracy.
- They emphasised the importance of redistributing wealth and creating a fairer society, but didn’t seek to abolish capitalism but wanted to manage it through keynesian economics.
- An example of their social democracy is how they established comprehensive schools, which intended to promote greater equality of opportunity.
16
Q
Why did Old Labour breakdown?
A
The last ‘Old Labour’ PM, James Callaghan, was defeated in the 1979 general election, leading to a division between moderate social democrats and more left-wing elements, who then captured the party under the leadership of Michael Foot.
- Labour lost the 1983 election on a hardline socialist programme of further nationalisation, increased tax and spending, the abolition of the UK’s nuclear weapons and withdrawal from the ‘capitalist’ EEC (European Economic Community).
- This hardline manifesto is often referred to as the ‘longest suicide note in history’. Following this, Neil Kinnock, drawn from the party’s centre-left was elected and the slow work of rebuilding began.
17
Q
How did New Labour change the Labour Party (until Brown)?
A
- In the 1980’s, the Lab party began to move away from it’s hard-left position, so that it could broaden its support. They realised that the old industrial base of the country disappeared and people became more affluent, a party only appealing to the WC wouldn’t be able to win.
- The Lab Party was rebranded as New Labour and aimed to find a way between free-market capitalism and old-style socialism, under the influence of Anthony Giddens. The party dropped unpopular policy proposals, revised Clause IV so that it was no longer committed to nationalisation and redistribution of wealth.
- The significance of TUs in the party was also downgraded and the leadership developed links with the business community, moving away from higher taxes on the rich and the corporations. This stopped the party being a purely WC party.
- They also became more pro-european as the EU began to adopt policies that protected workers’ rights. They also introduced big changes to the constitution such as devolution and reforming the HoL.
- Blair won by a landslide in 1997. He then went on to be reelected twice, though became unpopular due to the Iraq War, before standing down in 2007 to be replaced by his long-serving chancellor Brown, who was defeated in 2010.
18
Q
How was the move to New Labour divisive?
A
- Many traditional socialists rejected New Labour’s modernising efforts as a betrayal of their heritage and felt that Blair was too connected with business leaders and too positive about the values of the Free Market.
- His building of close links with the US gov, leading to the 2003 Iraq war, further damaged his credentials as a progressive figure.
- Blair’s supporters argued that New Labour was a necessary adaptation to a changing society and that it embodied ‘traditional values in a modern setting’.
19
Q
What was Milliband’s Labour like?
A
Milliband’s labour maintained some of New Labour’s policies while shifting slightly to the Left.
- He called for restoration of the 50% top tax rate, reduced 5% by the coalition, as well as a temporary energy price freeze.
20
Q
What was Corbyn’s Labour like?
A
- By 2015, there was significant pressure from the left of the Labour Party to take a more radical approach, with some party members attributing them being nearly wiped out in Scotland by the SNP to the party being insufficiently left-wing. Which caused the victory of Corbyn.
- Never before had there been such a divide in the party between MPs who favoured a more cautious, centrist approach and its grassroots, who approved of Corbyn’s unconventional, anti-establishment and left-wing style.
- Corbyn moved the Labour Party to the left to a significant extent under the slogan ‘for the many, not the few’, reembracing old labour.
- Corbyn marginally lost 2017, and was destroyed in 2019 with Labour having their worst electoral performance since 1935, representing a decisive rejection of Corbyn’s left-wing manifesto.
21
Q
What is Starmer’s Labour like?
A
- Following the 2019 defeat, Starmer was elected as Labour leader.
- Recognising that Corbyn’s left wing programme was conclusively rejected by the electorate, Starmer has progressively moved the Labour Party closer to the centre ground.
- Following Partygate, the failure of the Truss Administration and general dissatisfaction with the conservatives, Starmer’s Labour overtook the Conservatives in the polls and won the 2024 election with a landslide victory.
- Starmer also suspended Corbyn from the Labour Party in 2020 after the UK’s Human Rights Watchdog concluded that Labour broke the law by failing to stamp out antisemitism in the Labour Party when Corbyn was leader.
22
Q
What are the economic policies of the Labour Party under New Labour?
A
- NL aimed to separate themselves from earlier social democratic administrations by not increasing taxes and conserving resources before investing more in key public service.
- NL Govs aimed to reduce poverty, but didn’t make wiping out inequality a priority. For example, they introduced minimum wage but at a less generous level (£3.60) than the TUs wanted.
- NL supported Capitalism. Especially in becoming more pro-europe as they previously wanted to leave the EEC as it was too capitalist. As well as the use of Private Finance Initiatives, which used the private sector in the provision of public services, such as in building new schools and hospitals - this shows a step away from nationalisation.
23
Q
What are law and order policies of New Labour?
A
- Blair famously said that Labour must be ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’ setting out his policy of punishing criminal behaviour, whilst continuing to tackle poor social conditions. For example, He brought in ASBOs to deal with antisocial behaviour.
- New Labour broadly encouraged and facilitated immigration, seeing it economically beneficial, and net migration quadrupled to around 200,000 per year when they were in office before Starmer.
24
Q
What are welfare policies of New Labour?
A
- Labour consistently increased spending on the NHS and education. For example, between 1997 and 2007, the core spend per pupil rose 48% and there were record results in schools. When asked his 3 most important priorities in 1997, Blair said “education, education, education”.
- The winter fuel payment was introduced for pensioners and there was free off-peak travel for over 65s
- They introduced the minimum wage and the Working Families Tax Credit as part of policies aimed at promoting work.
25
What are the foreign policies of New Labour?
- Tony Blair's premiership became largely defined by foreign policy, especially his decision to support Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
- New Labour also doubled foreign aid spending when in power pre-Starmer.
26
What was another prominent policy of New Labour?
- Comprehensive sets of constitutional reforms aimed at modernising and democratising politics in the UK. (Devolution, HoL reform, intro of the Supreme Court and the HRA)
27
What were the economic, law and order, welfare and foreign policies of the Labour Party under Corbyn?
Economic Policy:
- In 2019, Corbyn pledged to significantly increase taxes by introducing a new 50% tax rate for those earning over £125,000 and raising corporation tax from 21% to 26%.
- In 2019, they also pledged 6 major nationalisations (rail, mail, water, energy, broadband relevant parts of BT and ending PFIs)
Law and Order Policy:
- Corbyn opposed cuts to police numbers, finding ground with the Blairites and New Labour, as he believed it jeopardised public safety. It focused more on dealing with poverty and inequality.
- In 2019 and 2017, they also pledged to end immigration targets set by the conservatives. This reflects the New Labour stance on immigration.
Welfare Policy:
- He opposed the use of the private sector to deliver public services, a central aspect of new Labour, and argued for a wholly state-run NHS. In 2019, Labour also pledged an average annual increase of 4.3% in overall health and social care spending.
- In 2017 and 2019, Labour pledged to scrap tuition fees and the charitable status of Private Schools and introduce a lifelong adult learning service.
Foreign Policy:
- During his time as a backbencher, Corbyn consistently voted against the use of force, wanted the UK out of NATO and wanted to abolish Trident.
- In 2019, Labour's manifesto included that they would have a second referendum on Brexit.
Overall: Corbyn shifted the Labour Party signficantly to the left, back to Old Labour and Social Democracy. The 2019 Manifesto was the most radical and leftist since 1935.
28
What are the current policies of Starmer's Labour? (not finished)
Economic:
Law and Order:
Welfare:
Foreign
29
Similarties of Current Labour and Corbyn/Old Labour (not finished)
30
Differences of New Labour and Corbyn/Old Labour. (not finished)
31
How did the conservative party origiante?
