Alan Whitehead

Labour Party | Southampton Test

Do we need state funding of political parties?

There is a looming crisis in the funding of Political Parties. Party membership generally is a fraction of what it was only a couple of decades ago: Parties are increasingly having to rely for their funding either on corporate donations, or on the support of a small number of very rich individuals. Neither is really healthy for politics in the long term.

Much has been done by the present Government to make donations more transparent and accountable. Donations of over £5000 have to be listed and the donors identified. There is now a complete ban on Parties receiving donations from overseas, and a cap on the amount each Party can spend during a General Election. These reforms are quite right and overdue, but had the effect of giving the media a field day whenever a donation is declared, and many companies simply do not donate any more because of the opprobrium they might suffer.

Sooner or later all Parties will find it impossible to fund their activities at anything like the present level, particularly between elections. So what? You might say. You might even think that the disappearance of Parties from the political scene would be a good thing.

I would disagree. Having Political Parties able to present different policies properly to the electorate, and compete for elected places is essential for the health of the political process. In order to do that Parties need some funding – and the proportion of funding between Parties should not be to grotesquely unbalanced.

For all these reasons I think we should now look seriously at State funding for our Political Parties. But if we do look we should do so carefully. I would not be in favour of a block grant ‘handout' to the main Parties – that would stifle active membership and could ossify Parties at historical levels of support. Funding needs to be related to Party activity – perhaps a top-up grant for each pound raised by each Party, with a draconian top limit on individual donations.

Some people will baulk at the idea of spending taxpayers' money on Party political activities. Those who do might be surprised to know that, already, up to 40% of Party costs between elections, and up to 60% of costs at elections are paid for by the State – if we include the grants for opposition parties for research, the free Party Political Broadcasts Parties receive, and the free post all candidates at elections are entitled to for their election addresses. This funding though, is not really transparent and accountable. It goes out in blocks – far better in may view to be up-front about it.' Match fund' assistance would be just that.