Party Funding in the UK

Good comparison with the US
- US funding is quite unregulated
  - funding is a lot more influential
- More strictly regulated in the UK
  - Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (PPERA) 2000
  - Political Parties and Elections Act (PPEA) 2009
Undue influence
- e.g. Bernie Ecclestone (CEO of F1) donated to Labour party to have them grant F1 an exemption from a ban on tobacco advertisements
Conservatives generally bankrolled by wealthy individuals
Institutional
- Trade unions donated heavily to the Labour party under Corbyn
  - GMB, Unite
Richard Tice (OU), Deputy Leader of Reform
- Donated £200,000 to Reform
- Climate skeptic

Cash for Honours

Waheed Alli
- Appointed to House of Lords in 1998 by Blair
- Media entrepreneur
- Donated £100k to Keir Starmer’s election campaign in 2020
- Donated over £700k in total to Labour

Should taxpayer funding go to a party that they don’t believe in
The UK does some state funding
Opposition parties receive funding to do administrative work in providing scrutiny of the government in parliament
Postage for one piece of campaign literature