Electoral Commission: Finance Matters for Small Parties

The Labour Party used to collect a penny a week at the end of World War II, and not a Duckhouse or second home in sight!

Financial accounts for smaller political parties published 28 May 2009

The financial accounts of UK political parties with income and expenditure of £250,000 or less for the year ending 31 December 2008 have been published today by the Electoral Commission. Those parties with income or expenditure of over £250,000 will be published on 30 July.

Party income and expenditure

The accounts show that 281 parties, many of which are fielding candidates at the elections on 4 June, have reported gross income and total expenditure of £250,000 or less. The combined gross income reported by these parties was £1,943,531, and the combined total expenditure by these parties was £1,709,185.

Of the 281 parties:

258 political parties have reported spending of between £0 and £25,000.
17 parties have reported spending between £25,000 and £100,000
Six parties have reported spending between £100,000 and £250,000. These parties are:
Alliance - Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Communist Party of Great Britain
Democratic Unionist Party - DUP
Left List
New Party
Progressive Unionist Party of Northern Ireland
Accounting unit income and expenditure

Political parties may register accounting units with the Electoral Commission. An accounting unit is a constituent or affiliated organisation of a political party and is responsible for its own financial affairs and transactions.

483 accounting units have reported gross income or total expenditure of between £25,000 and £250,000. The combined gross income of these accounting units was £28,983,884 and the combined total expenditure of these units was £27,736,281.

Late submissions

Ten parties and five accounting units have submitted their accounts to the Commission late. The Commission will impose civil penalties on these parties and accounting units.

48 parties have yet to submit their accounts to the Commission, although this includes parties with expenditure or income of over £250,000. In the case of these parties with larger income and expenditure, the deadline for submission to the Commission is 7July and the accounts will be published on 30 July 2009.

Full details are available at www.electoralcommission.org.uk.

Peter Wardle, Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission said:

“Public trust in democracy depends on transparency about where parties get their money from and how they spend it. Recent events have made that clearer than ever.

“Having a wide range of political parties ready and willing to take part in the political system is a very important part of our democracy. We know that the vast majority of those involved in the process are volunteers, especially amongst the parties whose accounts we have published today.

“That is why, earlier this year, we wrote to every registered party and every party accounting unit reminding them of what they needed to report to us and offering them advice and guidance on how to fulfil their statutory obligations.”

“We’re pleased that the trend of parties reporting on time to us continues to improve, especially amongst these smaller parties who are often less well resourced than the larger parties.“

The Commission is currently scrutinising all the submitted accounts and will be checking the information in these accounts with other information we hold and pursuing any discrepancies with the parties.

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For further information please contact:

Electoral Commission press office on 020 7271 0704