Third Party Expenses in Elections

Looking at the fact that the state funded Searchlight, who is coordinating the attack on the British National Party, for the now clearly revealed crooked and corrupt Establishment are to deliver 30,000 leaflets in Carlisle, prompted me to do some digging into Third Party Expense claims.

I would suggest all BNP election agents obtain copies from around the country of all Third Party election material to be used in any future legal action.

The sole purpose of these leaflets is for the Lib/Lab/con alliance to bend the rules, the way they have bent the rules on their expense claims and circumvent their election expense limits.

Simon Darby had it spot on when he said here:

"It’s a deceitful way of trying to undermine somebody’s campaign and is telling lies and, incidentally, avoiding election expenses."

Correct.  Here are the Third Party rules on expenses.....

Any third party (i.e. any individual, group or organisation) who intends to act independently to promote or disparage a candidate at an election is subject to controls and restrictions on the campaigning that they can undertake. This is governed by the legislation controlling candidates' election expenses.

Guidance on these controls has recently been revised in light of new legal guidance, and third parties are advised that no expenditure can be incurred by a third party in respect of:

   1. holding public meetings or organising any public display
   2. issuing advertisements, circulars or publications

They can however incur expenditure up to a specified maximum amount on otherwise presenting to the electors the candidate or his views, or the extent or nature of his backing or disparaging of another candidate.
The maximum amount of expenditure that can be incurred by a third party is:

    * at a local government election: £50 + 0.5p per elector
    * at a general election: £500
    * at an election to the Scottish parliament: £500 promoting or disparaging a constituency candidate or an independent regional candidate
    * at an election to National Assembly for Wales: £500 promoting or disparaging a constituency candidate and £1000 promoting or disparaging an independent regional candidate.

Simon Darby, Third Party