Tag Archives: election expenses

Liberal Democrats get the best electoral bang for campaign buck

By Helen Duffett | Published 3rd December 2010 - 10:52 am

Figures released by the Electoral Commission this week reveal that while the Conservative Party outspent all the other parties put together in General Election 2010, it was the Liberal Democrats who got the best value for money.

The Liberal Democrats spent 70p for each vote gained; the Labour Party, 93p and the Conservatives, £1.54.

From the Independent:

The biggest change from the previous election was the dramatic depletion of the Labour campaign’s war chest. It spent just over £8m on the three month campaign, less than half the £16.7m spent by the Tories. The figure for the Liberal Democrats was £4.8m,

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 12 Comments

Good news as Electoral Commission decides to preserve local donation records

By Mark Pack | Published 28th September 2010 - 12:27 pm

The Electoral Commission is plugging a gap in the record of political donations following a decision to change its policy on retaining copies of constituency candidate expense returns.

Donations made direct to a candidate (rather than to their party) are only recorded in these constituency returns and do not appear in the donation records published by the Electoral Commission. However, in previous Parliaments both the local copies of these returns kept by electoral officials and the copies gathered in by the Electoral Commission were destroyed after a handful of years. This meant that even before the next general election was held, …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , | 1 Comment

Good news for minor parties, unelected politicians and those who dislike election expense controls

By Mark Pack | Published 21st September 2010 - 9:27 am

Slipped in near the end of Nick Clegg’s keynote speech to Liberal Democrat conference was the news that the first democratic elections to the House of Lords are pencilled in for 2015.

Party sources have confirmed that the reference to Liberal Democrat candidates at the next general election fighting alongside candidates for a reformed Upper House means the draft Lords reform legislation due to be published early in 2011 is being planned on the basis of elections in 2015.

Continue reading »
Posted in Conference, Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Dear Nick Clegg…

By Mark Pack | Published 11th September 2010 - 9:26 am

Dear Deputy Prime Minister,

I read your speech from Thursday to the Committee on Standards in Public Life with interest. It is good to see the progress being made in many areas of political reform, including the commitment made in the speech that, “in the New Year we will produce draft legislation to complete the modernization of the House of Lords”.

Much else too in the speech was good to read, but I think you are missing an important issue about how the changes to election expense rules introduced for the 2010 general election are driving political parties in the wrong direction.

To …

Continue reading »
Posted in Election law, Op-eds | Also tagged , | 5 Comments

Joan Ruddock MP submits wholly notional expenses return

By Helen Duffett | Published 26th July 2010 - 6:50 pm

Election expenses from the Joan Ruddock (Labour) campaign in Lewisham Deptford 2010
The Londonist reports that Joan Ruddock, the Labour MP for Lewisham Deptford, has taken the unusual step of submitting her election expenses return without attaching any invoices or receipts, instead listing all expenses as “notional”:

Continue reading »
Posted in Election law | Also tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Mark Pack on election cost rules: “important that the rules are robust and that the rules are properly enforced”

By Stephen Tall | Published 25th July 2010 - 6:15 pm

LDV Co-Editor Mark Pack – who has written here and here about the Channel 4 News reports of MPs allegedly stretching their election exenses – has been interviewed by the channel about the complex rules.

You can watch one clip here:

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 5 Comments