Select a region
The mismatch between individual and party campaign spending at the last election has been put down to accidental “oversight” which is “based on no logic” by two deputies who want the caps to be the same in 2025.
A bespoke spending limit for political parties could be abolished if Deputies Lindsay de Sausmarez and Peter Roffey find success with their amendment to the expenditure policy next week.
They want to see the standalone cap for parties, proposed to be £15,000 by the States Assembly & Constitution Committee, scrapped but still allow for individuals to transfer up to half of their personal allowance to the party they are standing under.
It also sets out that the total of cash transfers shouldn’t exceed the spending limit for individual candidates which SACC has proposed is raised to £7,500, but that also faces being slashed by deputies.
Failing that, the pair have provided another option which would allow parties to have a total spending limit not higher than one-and-a-half times the individual limit.
In other words, deputies can choose to equalise personal and party spending limits or allow for parties to spend 50% more.
Deputies de Sausmarez and Roffey noted that SACC's proposed campaign spending caps had been the same for individuals and parties during debates for the 2020 election, but the States decided to lower the spending limit for individuals without adjusting the limit for parties.
They labelled this an “oversight” which “resulted in an accidental differentiation between the two limits” which is “based on no logic or rationale”.
“This equality should be restored, so that independent candidates are not significantly disadvantaged in terms of spending power compared with candidates endorsed by a political party.
“As a fallback option in the event that Proposition 1 is not carried, Proposition 2 of this amendment proposes a limit of just 1.5 times the individual allowance – the rationale simply being that that would be better than double the individual expenditure allowance.”
SACC’s rationale for the increases was to uplift the personal spending by inflation, and "simply” double the cap for parties.
Pictured: Polling day is 18 June 2025.
“In practice, this would mean that a political party would need a minimum of four members to be able to fund the party up to its allowance; as the limit for political parties is now simply double that of an individual candidate,” SACC said in its original policy letter.
Back in February, SACC President Deputy Carl Meerveld arguing that the party cap should be increased more as the 2020 cap was “so low it’s discouraging the formation of parties” and the States “shouldn’t be putting deliberate obstacles in the way of their formation”.
Deputy Simon Fairclough, a SACC member, replied saying inflation should be the maximum rate of increase and that there was little to gain from offering parties a more substantial uplift.
All three parties which fielded candidates in 2020 – The Guernsey Party, the Partnership of Independents, and the Alliance Party – didn’t spend the maximum £9,000 during the campaign
The de Sausmarez/Roffey amendment would apply no matter what spending limits are ultimately decided by the States next week, with several challenges coming SACC’s way.
While it wants to see increases to both caps, deputies will also vote on keeping them at 2020 levels - £6,000 for individuals and £9,000 for parties – or slashing them even further to £3,000 and £6,000respectively.
SACC accused of ignoring Assembly on campaign spending
Fears of restricted campaigning if expenditure cap reduced
Election date set but spending rules remain up in the air
“Obscenely high” election spending uplift faces opposition
Political parties could benefit from £6k uplift in campaign spending
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.