Political Parties Funding — Reform rejected — 4 Dec 2007 at 18:48
Richard Bacon MP, South Norfolk voted in the minority (Aye).
The majority voted against the motion:[1]
- This House
- notes with concern the corrosion of public trust in democracy following the recent succession of scandals over the funding of the governing political party;
- regrets that a comprehensive package of proposals to reform electoral law was not achieved by the inter-party talks owing to the refusal of the Secretary of State for Justice and the Labour representative, Mr Peter Watt, to accept a comprehensive cap on donations;
- observes the unhealthy increase in back-door state funding through the £6 million of funds allocated to special advisers and the funding of over 3,000 press and communications officers across Whitehall and its quangos;
- asserts that the Communications Allowance[2][3] is an unhealthy extension of taxpayer funding for party propaganda that advantages the governing party; and
- calls for a comprehensive package of reforms to restore public trust and to support a vibrant local democracy and voluntary activism, which must include an across-the-board cap and annually a genuine individual choice for union members on whether they wish to donate to their favoured political party.
An alternative motion was passed in by the next vote.[4]
- [1] Francis Maude MP, House of Commons, 4 December 2007
- [2] MPs vote for £10,000 web funding, BBC, 28 March 2008
- [3] Division 87, Communications Allowance, 28 March 2007.
- [4] Division 20, 4 December 2007.
Party Summary
Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.
What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.
What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.
What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.
Party | Majority (No) | Minority (Aye) | Both | Turnout |
Con | 0 | 150 (+2 tell) | 0 | 78.4% |
DUP | 0 | 3 | 0 | 33.3% |
Independent | 1 | 0 | 0 | 25.0% |
Lab | 297 (+2 tell) | 0 | 0 | 84.9% |
LDem | 42 | 1 | 0 | 68.3% |
PC | 0 | 1 | 0 | 33.3% |
SDLP | 1 | 0 | 0 | 33.3% |
SNP | 0 | 5 | 0 | 83.3% |
Total: | 341 | 160 | 0 | 79.7% |
Rebel Voters - sorted by party
MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division
Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote
Name | Constituency | Party | Vote |
John Pugh | Southport | LDem (front bench) | aye |