The spending limit rules for the upcoming election are complicated, but fascinating. Basically they reach back in time because the regulated period is from 13 December 2018 to 13 December 2019.
electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/…
electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/…
The amount each party is allowed to spend on the general election depends on the number of candidates they're fielding, but also on whether they stood in the European elections or not, and if so how much they spent then. Parties can carry over unspent European election limits.
It is also affected by what they spent in the local elections, and on any by-elections during the regulated period.
The basic spending limit for the GE is: £30,000 x number of seats being contested.
The basic spending limit for the GE is: £30,000 x number of seats being contested.
So on the face of it, if a party are going to stand registered candidates in all 632 seats their base spending limit would be 632 x £30,000 = £18,960,000. But that's since 13 December last year, not from now on.
And they could in theory have several hundred thousand pounds of spending headroom left over from the European elections if they stood candidates in all regions but didn't use up their spending allowance. They can add that in too.
So there's going to be a lot of frantic bean counting going on in the back rooms of the different political parties. Some may have used up quite a bit of their allowances over the last year already I am guessing.
Finally: this thread is about national parties. Candidates for each constituency also get a separate spending limit for local spending on their campaigns.
