POLITICAL PARTY BUDGETS

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When you read these figures you really see why the Labour and Conservatives parties don't want proportional representation as it would mean another pig in the trough.

Also brings into question on how you can trust political parties with a nations finances when they get 20 million pounds a year given to them and still be 10 million pounds in debt. .

Table 2: Public Funds in 2012

All public funds paid to political parties during the year 2012.
In brackets is the name of the body responsible for paying the provision.

Party	Short money (House of Commons)	Cranborne money (House of Lords)	Financial assistance to parties (Scottish Parliament)	Policy Development Grants (Electoral Commission)	Total
Conservative and Unionist Party	£0	£0	£118,696	£192,387	£311,083
Green Party	£59,896	£0	£0	£0	£59,896
Labour Party	£5,746,258	£304,217	£870,853	£457,630	£7,378,958
Liberal Democrats	£0	£0	£39,538	£455,548	£495,086
Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales	£74,474	£0	£0	£151,651	£226,125
Scottish National Party (SNP)	£160,866	£0	£0	£168,675	£329,541
Total	£6,041,494	£304,217	£1,029,087	£1,425,890	£8,800,688

Nice little earner for the Labour party why would they want to share that out? Not forgetting that when the Conservatives go into opposition they will get the funding instead.

Then you have the donations.

Table 1: Donations received by parties during the year 2012

The table below provides total for donations received by parties in 2012. Donations include cash, non-cash, donations from exempt trusts, visits, donations from impermissible and unidentifiable donors.

Figures are rounded to the nearest pound and are subject to changes if donations are reported late in the future.

Party	Donations
	£	No
Conservative and Unionist Party	13,801,282	707
Labour Party	12,036,055	661
Liberal Democrats	2,481,707	479
Co-operative Party	1,041,314	25
Scottish National Party (SNP)	550,523	16
UK Independence Party (UK I P)	314,410	66
British National Party	265,987	6
Green Party	245,483	39
The Socialist Party of Great Britain	176,758	2
Plaid Cyrmu - The Party of Wales	97,917	5
Don't Cook Party	72,712	1
Scottish Green Party	15,672	2
Grand Total	31,099,821	2,009

 So now Labour has nearly 8 million pounds given to them by the state and 12 million pounds in the main part given to them by the unions. If you look at the break down 90% of Labour donations are from the unions.

Would you think they would be in debt? Well here is their credit balances.

Table 7: Loans outstanding by parties as at 31 December 2012

A loan is an agreement where a person (or organisation) makes a loan of money to the party. The conditions of the loan are agreed by the party and the lender. Parties are required to report not only the loan but also changes to the agreed terms and conditions, including when a loan ends. The amount displayed is the total amount to be lent under the agreement (not including interest).

Party	New loans (£)	Loans repaid or converted into donations (£)	Total loans outstanding (£)
Christian Party “Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship”	0	0	200,000
Conservative and Unionist Party	15,000	1,789	2,619,796
English Democrats Party	0	0	108,041
Jury Team	0	0	519,056
Labour Party	0	5,000	9,858,723
Liberal Democrats	0	0	359,252
Pensioners Party	0	0	8,436
People’s Party for Better Government	0	0	7,800
Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales	0	0	69,413
Progressive Party	0	0	100,000
Respect	0	0	18,417
Scottish National Party (SNP)	0	0	161,553
Scottish Socialist Party	0	0	63,000
Scottish Voice	0	0	200,000
UK Independence Party (UK I P)	87,000	80,000	7,000
Total	102,000	86,789	14,300,488

So Labour has 20 million pounds of donations and public money, yet have loans nearing 10 million pounds. Obviously some of these so called loans can be donations given as loans that will never be asked to be paid back. But just how much money do these parties want and get from us the tax payer.

Table 8: Credit facilities outstanding by parties as at 31 December 2012 A credit facility is an agreement where a registered party is entitled to receive a loan of money from time to time from another person (or organisation). The credit facility will generally have an upper limit specified in the credit facility agreement. Examples of common credit facilities include overdrafts and credit cards. The amount displayed is the maximum that can be borrowed and not the amount that is drawn upon at any one time.

Party	New credit facilities (£)	Reduction of credit facilities (£)	Total credit facilities outstanding (£)
Conservative and Unionist Party	0	0	10,161,000
Jury Team	0	0	20,000
Labour Party	0	0	1,793,000
Liberal Democrats	0	0	1,042,000
Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales	0	0	350,000
Progressive Party	0	0	5,000
Scottish National Party	0	0	2,500
Scottish Socialist Party	0	0	10,000
Total	0	0	13,383,500

This is where the Tories hide their debts. Makes for interesting reading and just how much money the political parties get. This is before they even start claiming their own allowances as MPs.

Your thoughts if you would like to leave a comment.