Thread: Did you know that Reform's next by-election win will be worth over £2.6 million to the party?
Why? It's all down to the way short money works.
Short money is official money that all opposition parties receive so long as they have 2+ seats, or 1 seat and 150,000 votes at the last GE.
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Why? It's all down to the way short money works.
Short money is official money that all opposition parties receive so long as they have 2+ seats, or 1 seat and 150,000 votes at the last GE.
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Comments
A cursory glance toward the USA will inform you there are far worse ways to allow political parties to finance themselves.
I just thought some people might be interested to learn the consequence of what one more MP would mean to Reform.
(NOTE: It's a grey area, but it seems MPs who defect don't count i.e. only MPs who actually won their seats for that party factor into the calculation.)
But short money also has a ceiling...
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They can receive a maximum of £376,230 a year if the ceiling rule is triggered.
But if a party has 6+ MPs, they're not affected by the ceiling and receive the full short money based on the formula.
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So if assuming at least 4 years until the next GE, that's an extra £2.6 million in short money.
Imagine how transformative that would be to their chances in the next GE!
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I'm fairly sure, especially moving towards a GE, that Farage's friends to the east, and his new pals to the west, would make thoroughly sure that he has plenty in his back pocket.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01663/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/mar/07/reform-uk-chaos-claims-bullying-rupert-lowe