Conservative Proposals on Party Funding
From Democracywiki
Central Lobby
 Our View We are delighted that the Conservative Party has finally crossed the rubicon in supporting caps and public funding. The new set of proposals produced by Andrew Tyrie MP is the most comprehensive document on party funding produced by any political party and sets a standard for the other parties to follow. However while we welcome the Conservative Party's proposals for party funding reform, we are concerned that they are not focused enough with reconnecting people and politics. Strange as it may seem we think the proposals are too statist, particularly the proposal for a general election campaigning fund which is essentially a block grant from the state to political parties. We are also concerned that 'per-vote funding' is too blunt an instrument. It does not require political parties to engage with the electorate significantly more than they do at present, nor does it encourage them to campaign and seek to increase participation outside of an election period. There is a real danger that these proposals would do nothing to reverse the decline of local party activism and increased centralisation of politics. The New Politics Network and Charter 88 support a system where individuals would be required to register their support on an annual basis and could switch or end their support at any time. This sort of system would reward political parties that made the effort to directly engage with the electorate at a local level. |
In response to the debate about loans to political parties, the Conservative Party has published a detailed set of proposals on how political parties should be funded. These include:
- A cap on donations from individuals, trade unions, corporations and institutions set initially at �50,000.
- Tax relief on donations of up to �3,000;
- A ban on all forms of loans to parties, except from financial institutions on fully commercial terms, should be imposed.
- Additional state funding based on the number of votes a party received at the previous General Election;
- Off-setting reductions in the cost of politics by reducing the spending on General Election campaigns from �20m to �15m.
- Substantially reforming the honours system and appointments to the House of Lords.
This is the first time that the Conservative Party has proposed direct state funding for political parties and is a significant step forward in the attempts to build consensus.
A full briefing on these proposals will be available shortly. A copy of our briefing on the Electoral Commission�s proposals can be found here
Details of the Conservative proposals and the full briefing paper can be found here
