political party funding

Question 1

how can parties be funded?

Answer 1

monthly subscriptions, donations,. fundraising events, grants

Question 2

where does the Conservative party get most of their funding from?

Answer 2

a large amount of their donations come from large donations from businesses and membership fees

Question 3

where does the Labour Party get most of their funding from?

Answer 3

donations from trade unions

Question 4

what 3 solutions could be done to change the way parties are funded for the better?

Answer 4

• impose restrictions on the size of individual donations to parties
• impose restrictions on the amount of funding parties are allowed to spend
• replace funding with state grants

Question 5

what is unfair about the way that political parties are funded?

Answer 5

the larger parties receive a lot more funding than the smaller parties, for example, The Conservative party have an unfair advantage over the Green Party in terms of funding, this is because they receive large donations from individuals. smaller parties also have smaller memberships than bigger parties.

Question 6

what was the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act, and what regulations were announced? (there are 3)

Answer 6

1. limits were placed on how much could be spent on parliamentary elections
2. donations over £500 had to be declared
3. donations over £7500 had to be placed on an electoral register

Question 7

how is the current funding system unfair for minority parties?

Answer 7

they dont have regular sources of income, and also don’t have membership subscriptions. however, it is understandable that donors are less likely to donate to parties that aren’t very likely to win

Question 8

why is the current funding system so controversial?

Answer 8

2019: labour and conservative gained £5million in party funding in comparison to green party at just over 100k, this shows that the current funding system clearly favours the two largest parties, leading to inequality, which is undemocatic

Question 9

how can the current funding system lead to corrpution?

Answer 9

Boris Johnson nominated Peter Cruddas who donated £50,000 to his campaign to be party leader for a seat in the House of Lords

Question 10

how does the government impose checks on funding currently?

Answer 10

the conservative party was fined £70,000 for breaches in its expenses reporting for the 2015 general eletion.

they found that the conservatives failed to report £104,000 of campaign expenses

Question 11

arguments for state funding

Answer 11

• more demoratic as parties are all given funding equally
• need to decide, is it down to amount of seats or does everyone get the same funding? unfair either way

Question 12

arguments against state funding

Answer 12

• taxpayers will be reluctant to pay to fund parties they don’t support
• if funding is determined by number of seats, bigger parties would receive more funding anyways, what kind of approach do they want to use?
• parties would lose their independence and see themselves as organs of the state