General Elections: Finance

(asked on 6th September 2021) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing the UK parliamentary general election spending limit.


Answered by
Chloe Smith Portrait
Chloe Smith
This question was answered on 9th September 2021

As I announced in my written ministerial statement on 3 December 2020, it is the Government’s intention to review party and candidate spending limits for all polls within the legislative competence of the UK Government, other than local council elections in England which were uprated last year, with a view to uprating them in line with inflation since they were originally set. This will create a baseline for regular and consistent reviews of all limits in future.

In some cases, there has been a significant gap since the last time spending limits were raised - some, including those for political parties at UK parliamentary elections, haven’t changed since 2000. This impacts campaigning ability given inflationary costs of printing and communication, which is vital for parties and candidates to communicate their views with voters. Election spending limits are fixed in absolute terms. By updating for inflation, the limits remain in line with the original intent of Parliament when they were introduced.

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