British Party Funding, 1983-1988

Abstract

The burst of spending by the Conservative Central Office on press advertising during the week before the vote probably constituted the heaviest short-term central campaign spending in British political history. According to the Labor Party’s research, donations by companies to political parties, related funding bodies such as British United Industrialists, and other political organizations, such as the Economic League, Aims, and the Centre for Policy Studies, amounted to £4,060,758. Following its heavy defeat in the 1983 general election, the British Labor party, under the leadership of Neil Kinnock, mounted a strong challenge to the Conservative Central Office regarding organization and fund-raising. Donations are net of fund-raising costs. Two general propositions can be made. First, direct mail fund-raising was relatively undeveloped at the time of the general election of 1987. Second, corporate donations appear to have accounted for a considerably smaller proportion, and individual contributions for a greater proportion, of central income than before.