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The Electoral Commission has yesterday published the campaign expenditure returns of political parties and registered non-party campaigners that spent £250,000 or less campaigning at the 2015 UK Parliamentary General Election. 

Any political party that contested the election is required to submit a campaign expenditure return to the Commission. Forty-two parties in Great Britain reported spending a total of £315,090 on campaigning during the regulated period, which ran from 23 May 2014 to polling day on Thursday 7 May 2015. A further sixty-one parties submitted nil returns. 

Registered non-party campaigners are also required to submit a campaign expenditure return to the Commission. Twenty-three non-party campaigners from across the UK submitted returns to the Commission totalling £1,775,769.

Political parties and non-party campaigners that spent £250,000 or less were required to submit their returns by 7 August 2015. 

In addition, to the returns released yesterday, six political parties spent more than £250,000 campaigning at the general election. These parties have until 7 November 2015 to submit an independently audited return to the Commission. The Commission will publish this information after this deadline.

Campaign expenditure of £250,000 or less 

The table below shows the political parties with the highest reported campaign expenditure. The second table shows highest reported spend by non-party campaigners. Details of all of the submitted returns are available on the Commission’s website.

Table 1: highest spending political parties
 

Table 2: highest spending non-party campaigners
 

In addition to the overall expenditure, political parties and non-party campaigners must allocate all spending against one of nine categories. Details by category, as well as copies of individual invoices and receipts can be found on the Commission’s website here

For a visual breakdown of the figures see our website here 

Parties and non-party campaigners that did not meet the statutory deadline for providing a return are considered in line with the Electoral Commission’s enforcement policy which is available on our website here. We publish details of all sanctions on a monthly basis here

For figures relating to parties in Northern Ireland, see our separate press release here

For more information please contact:
Megan Phillips at the Electoral Commission press office on 020 7271 0704
Out of office hours 07789 920414 
Email mphillips@electoralcommission.org.uk 

Notes to editors

1. The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. Our aim is integrity and public confidence in the UK’s democratic process. We regulate party and election finance and set standards for well-run elections.
2. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (2000) introduced controls on campaign expenditure by political parties contesting UK Parliamentary elections. Parties with expenditure up to and including £250,000 must deliver a report to the Commission within three months of the election. Parties with expenditure over £250,000 must deliver an audited report to the Commission within six months of the election.
3. The six parties submitting returns over £250,000 are the Conservative Party, the Green Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
4. Non-party campaigners must register with the Commission before they can spend more than £20,000 on campaigning in England, or £10,000 in any of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland and are required to submit an expenditure return if they campaigned and spent over these sums of money at the UK Parliamentary General election.
5. For the 2015 UK Parliamentary elections, the regulated period  ran from 23 May 2014 until polling day ( 7 May 2015)
6. Figures in this press release are rounded to the nearest £.