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$Title{United Kingdom
Organisation of Political Parties in Britain}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC}
$Subject{party
parties
constituency
labour
liberal
members
election
parliament
conservative
general
see
tables
}
$Date{1990}
$Log{See Table 1.*0051501.tab
See Table 2.*0051502.tab
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Title:       United Kingdom
Book:        Organisation of Political Parties in Britain
Author:      Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC
Affiliation: Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC
Date:        1990

Organisation of Political Parties in Britain

Introduction

     The British system of parliamentary democracy is based on the party
system, in which office is sought by organised political parties able to
form and support a stable government. The party system itself rests on the
assumption that there are at least two parties in the House of Commons, each
of which is sufficiently united on matters of policy and principle to be
able to form a government at any time. The parties are not registered or
formally recognised in law, but in practice most candidates in elections,
and almost all winning candidates, belong to one of the main political
parties.

     After a brief historical background of the origins of the major parties
represented in the British Parliament and an outline of the modern party
system, this pamphlet describes the organisation - both inside and outside
Parliament - of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties. (The
Liberal Democrats, whose formal title is the 'Social & Liberal Democrats',
were formed following the merger of the Liberal Party and the Social
Democratic Party in 1988.) The organisation of the two nationalist
parties - the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalist
Party) - and that of the main political parties in Northern Ireland - Ulster
Unionist, Democratic Unionist, Social Democratic and Labour, Sinn Fein and
Alliance - is considered in separate chapters.

Historical Background

     For over 150 years British parliamentary democracy has been based on a
predominantly two-party system: with first Whigs and Tories, then Liberals
and Conservatives, and most recently Labour and Conservatives alternating in
power.

     Associations of like-minded people inevitably occur in any organised
society when the principles and practices of government are open to public
debate and discussion. In England they have existed in one form or another at
least since medieval times. Yet for centuries, and long after the real power
in the State has passed from the Crown to Parliament, such associations were
loosely knit and short lived. They were usually formed to achieve some
particular purpose, and afterwards came to an end, perhaps regrouping for
some other cause. The origins of organised political parties in Britain are
comparatively recent. Before 1832 - the date of the first parliamentary
Reform Act - there was no clear-cut division in the House of Commons along
modern party lines. The terms 'Whig' and 'Tory' had been in use for about 150
years to describe certain political leanings, but there was no party
organisation of any sort outside Parliament. Even within Parliament no strong
party discipline existed.

     The reason for this lack of organisation lay, to a great extent, in the
comparatively small size and exclusive nature of the electorate. In 1830 there
were 656 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons, slightly more
than there are today, but they were returned by an electorate of only about
500,000 out of a total adult population of some 10 million. Many of the
growing industrial areas were not represented in Parliament, while ancient
country towns sometimes sent two members. The outcome of elections was decided
by a small number of influential citizens, and not by the public at large. The
personal influence of a candidate counted for more than the policy of a party;
and, once elected, an MP did not have to follow a party line.

     The growth of the modern party system was brought about by parliamentary
reform and the gradual extension of voting rights to the whole adult
population. Corrupt election practices were gradually brought to an end,
representation in Parliament became more fairly distributed throughout the
country, and the social composition of the electorate changed. As a result it
became difficult for candidates to offer themselves as individuals to the
voters. Politicians, as the representatives of millions of voters able to take
part in elections for the first time, began to form organised parties
promising to carry out policies which their supporters were prepared to
endorse.

Establishment of National Party Organisations

     In these circumstances it became obvious that some form of political
organisation outside Parliament, as well as within it, was essential if votes
were to be won and support maintained. The first organised political parties
on the modern pattern - the Conservative and Liberal parties - were, broadly
speaking, successors to the Tories and Whigs of the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. The word 'Conservative' in its modern political sense
first came into use after about 1830 and gradually became a normal expression
to describe the successors of the Tories. The Liberal Party was formed towards
the end of the 1850s with the support of former Whigs and other political
groups.

     Both the Liberals and the Conservatives created national headquarters
in the 1860s. The Liberal Party central organisation began in 1860 when some
Liberal MPs established the Liberal Registration Association, designed to
encourage the registration of voters and the growth of constituency
associations. Further steps to strengthen Liberal organisations came after a
heavy defeat of the Party in the 1874 general election. In 1877 a large
meeting in Birmingham (then the centre of Joseph Chamberlain's successful
Liberal association) established the National Liberal Federation, with the
aim of forming Liberal constituency associations. Under the Federation's
rules, affiliated associations could send representatives to an annual meeting
of the Federation's council, a forerunner of the annual party conference.

     The Conservative Party founded the National Union of Conservative and
Constitutional Associations in 1867, the year of the second Reform Act which
considerably enlarged the number of voters able to take part in a
parliamentary election. The National Union became the national organisation of
the Conservative constituency associations, designed to increase popular
support for the Party outside Parliament. After the Conservative defeat in the
1868 general election, the Party under the leadership of Benjamin Disraeli
created the Conservative Central Office to encourage the organisation of
constituency associations and to register candidates for elections.

The Emergence of the Labour Party

     As the number of voters increased, a third party came into existence with
the aim of representing working men in Parliament. As with the Liberal Party
50 to 60 years earlier, the Labour Party was the product both of a new body of
voters created by legislation and of the growth of a new ideology.

     The earlier parties began as parliamentary groups within Parliament and
established organisations outside it in order to gain support and so achieve
re-election. In contrast, the Labour Party began as a movement outside
Parliament, seeking representation within it in order to further the aims of
party policy. In 1893 an Independent Labour Party was formed in Bradford and,
following a meeting in 1900 with some trade unions and socialist societies, a
Labour Representation Committee was established to co-ordinate plans for
Labour representation in Parliament. After the 1906 election the Committee
became the Labour Party. Local committees were established at constituency
level, but there was no individual membership; the Committee consisted
entirely of affiliated organisations. In 1918 the Party was completely
reorganised, with constituency Labour parties admitting individual members as
well as affiliated organisations.

     During the inter-war period (1918-39) the Labour Party took the place of
the Liberal Party, which had last formed a government by itself in 1906-16, as
the main rival of the Conservative Party. The first Labour Government held
office for ten months in 1924, although it lacked an overall majority in the
House of Commons. In 1929-31 the Party took office for a second time, again as
a minority government. Since 1945 there have been seven Conservative and six
Labour governments and almost all the members of the House of Commons have
represented either the Conservative or the Labour Party. Despite considerable
electoral strength in the country (see p 9), the Liberal Party did not at any
one time, between 1945 and 1988, have more than 19 members in the House of
Commons. Its successor, the Liberal Democrats (see p 7) currently has 20
members in the House.

Other Parties

     Other parties represented in Parliament include the nationalist parties
in Scotland and Wales. The Scottish National Party (SNP) was formed in 1934 by
supporters of self-government for Scotland and returned its first MP in a
by-election in 1945. It subsequently lost support, but during the 1960s its
membership increased and it secured a by-election success in 1967. In 1970 it
won its first seat at a general election. Like the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Welsh
Nationalist Party (literally 'The Party of Wales'), made considerable advances
in membership during the 1960s. Founded in 1925, it secured its first seat in
the House of Commons at a by-election in 1966. It contested all 36 Welsh seats
for the first time in the 1970 general election, but failed to return any
members to the House of Commons. Both parties received their greatest support
in the two general elections in 1974, when the SNP returned seven MPs in the
February election and 11 in October, while Plaid Cymru returned two and then
three MPs in the two contests. In 1979, however, both parties lost the ground
gained earlier: the SNP was reduced from 11 members to two and Plaid Cymru
from three to two.

     A new political party was formally established in 1981 when a number of
MPs and two former Labour ministers, not then in Parliament, broke away from
their parties to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP). At the time of its
launch, the parliamentary group of the SDP consisted of 14 MPs-13 former
Labour MPs and one former Conservative. The individuals concerned joined the
Council for Social Democracy, set up in 1981 to 'rally all those...committed
to the values, principles and policies of social democracy'. By 1982 the SDP
was represented in the House of Commons by 29 MPs.

     In the year of its formation the SDP entered into an electoral alliance
with the Liberal Party. The two parties entered the 1983 and 1987 general
elections with a joint programme. Their parliamentary candidates offered
themselves as Alliance candidates who, if elected, would sit in the House of
Commons as members of their respective parties. (The Alliance, unlike the
Liberal Party in earlier elections, contested all 633 seats in England, Wales
and Scotland.) In the 1987 general election the Alliance returned 22
members-17 Liberal and 5 SDP - with over 22 per cent of the total vote.

     The Liberal Party and the SDP shared a common approach to major policy
issues. Following discussions between members of the two parties about a
formal union of the Liberal Party and the SDP, and after a ballot of members
of both parties, in March 1988 members of the two parties merged to form a
new party, the Social & Liberal Democrats. This party is now known as the
Liberal Democrats and is represented in the House of Commons by 20 MPs, of
whom 17 are former Liberals and two former Social Democrats; an additional
Liberal Democrat MP was returned at a by-election in October 1990.

     Following the formation of the Liberal Democrats, a separate Social
Democratic Party continued to exist, comprising those SDP members who opposed
the merger; it was represented by three MPs. In June 1990 the SDP voted to
suspend the operation of its constitution, stating that it no longer had the
levels of membership or popular support needed to continue as a national
political party. The validity of this vote has since been challenged by a
number of SDP members. The three SDP MPs have announced that they will remain
as Social Democrats.

     The Conservative and Labour parties and the Liberal Democrats have
traditionally operated in England, Wales and Scotland only; they have not been
organized in Northern Ireland and have not contested elections there. However,
a number of Conservative constituency associations in Northern Ireland have
recently been affiliated to the National Union of Conservative and Unionist
Associations (see p 16), and may contest parliamentary elections there. All
the main political parties in Northern Ireland are locally based, and elected
representatives from Northern Ireland constituencies at Westminster (the
numbers of which increased from 12 to 17 in 1979) are drawn from five
political parties. The largest is the Ulster Unionist party, with nine
members.

The Party System

The Electoral System

     In the British electoral system the country is divided into 650
single-member constituencies. Representatives are elected to Parliament by
the first-past-the-post (simple majority) method, which awards seats in the
House of Commons to the candidates with the largest number of votes in each
constituency. The boundaries of the constituencies are reviewed at least
every 15 years to take account of population movements or other changes. Under
this system the strongest party in the House of Commons may have an absolute
majority of seats with less than an absolute majority of votes. The system is
generally considered to favour two-party competition, especially between
parties whose support is concentrated geographically, and to discriminate
against parties with support spread across constituencies. In the 1987 general
election, for example, support for the Conservative Party was greatest in the
south of England, with the exception of inner London, while that for the
Labour Party was greatest in the north of England and in Scotland; support for
the Alliance (see p 7), on the other hand, was fairly evenly distributed
throughout Great Britain. (A percentage distribution of the votes cast in each
region for the main parties in the 1987 election appears in Table 2 on p 9).

Forming a Government

     The party which wins most seats (though not necessarily the most votes)
at a general election, or which has the support of a majority of members in
the House of Commons, is usually invited by the Sovereign to form a
government. The party with the next largest number of seats is officially
recognised as 'Her Majesty's Opposition'; this has its own leader, who is paid
a salary from public funds, and its own 'shadow cabinet'. Members of other
parties or any independent MPs who have been elected support or oppose the
Government according to their party or their own view of the policy being
debated at any given time. Because the official Opposition is a minority
party, it seldom succeeds in introducing or amending legislation. However, its
statements and policies are important, since it is considered to be a
potential Government-and would become so if successful at the next general
election.

     On occasion, a minority government may be formed or arise. In some cases
no one party succeeds in winning a majority of seats over all the other
parties combined (as after the general election of February 1974). Following
the defeat and resignation of the Government, it is customary in such
circumstances for the Sovereign to invite the leader of the largest opposition
party in the House of Commons to form a government. A minority government may
also arise when, during the life of a Parliament, the governing party loses
its majority through by-election defeats, as did the Labour Government in
1977. In both these circumstances, the Government has three choices: it may
introduce only that legislation which commands the support of a majority in
the House; it may make some form of arrangement with one or more opposition
parties to enable it to stay in office; or it can ask for Parliament to be
dissolved and for a general election to be held.

[See Table 1.: General Election June 1987]

[See Table 2.: Percentage Distribution of Votes Cast in each Region by Main
Party]

     A minority government may stay in office so long as all other parties do
not form a united parliamentary opposition to its policies and defeat it on a
vote of confidence. Occasionally, a minority administration has made a formal
agreement with another party to support it. This occurred in March 1977 when
the Labour Government made a formal agreement with the parliamentary Liberal
Party whereby Liberal MPs agreed to 'work with the Government in the pursuit
of economic recovery'. The 'Lib-Lab Pact', as it was called, lasted until the
autumn of 1978, when Liberal support was withdrawn.

     The formation of a coalition government in Britain has taken place during
this century only for the sake of overcoming national crises, such as the two
world wars (1914-18 and 1939-45) or the economic depression during the 1930s.
In a coalition, ministers are drawn from each of the parties concerned. The
last coalition in Britain was dissolved in 1945 towards the end of the second
world war.

     The party system assumes that, in spite of the alternative programmes
sponsored by the main political parties, there is common interest and
agreement upon the maintenance of free institutions and parliamentary
democracy.

The General Election of June 1987

     The last general election was held on 11 June 1987, when the Conservative
Party gained a majority of 101 seats over all other parties. The total number
of electors entitled to vote in the election was some 43.2 million, and 75.3
per cent of the electorate voted. Table 1 shows the number of seats and votes
obtained by each party at present represented in Parliament and their
percentage share of the total vote.

State of the Parties in the House of Commons mid-November 1990

     As a result of subsequent by-elections, and following the merger between
the Liberal and Social Democratic parties, the distribution of seats in the
House of Commons in mid-November 1990 was: Conservative 370, Labour 227,
Liberal Democrats 20, Social Democrats 3 (see p 7), Scottish National 5
(including one former labour MP who joined the Party in 1990), Plaid Cymru 3,
Ulster Unionist 9, Democratic Unionist 3, Social Democratic and Labour 3,
Ulster Popular Unionist 1, Sinn Fein 1, and 1 vacancy. Not included are the
Speaker and his three deputies (the Chairman of Ways and Means and the first
and second Deputy Chairmen of Ways and Means) who do not vote except in their
official capacity in the event of a tie.

Party Organisation Outside Parliament

     This chapter deals with the organisation outside Parliament and with
the office of party leader of the three main political parties at
Westminster - Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat. The next chapter
covers organisation inside Parliament. The two nationalist parties - Scottish
National Party and Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalist) - are considered on
pp 29-30 and the main parties in Northern Ireland on pp 31-5.

     Although there are important organisational differences, certain
elements are common to each of the three main parties. Outside Parliament, the
basic unit of organisation is the local constituency association. (However,
local parties of the Liberal Democrats may cover one or more neighbouring
constituencies - see p 14). These are usually linked together in regional
federations. Also common to each party is a national organisation whose main
function is to arrange an annual conference, which provides a channel of
communication between the leading members of the party in Parliament and its
supporters in the country. A further common feature is a central office, the
national headquarters of the party, staffed by professional workers and
providing a link between the party in Parliament and the party in the country.
Finally, there is the leader of the party. The roles of the party organisation
and the importance of the annual party conference, however, vary between
parties.

Constituency Associations or Parties

Conservative Party

     Conservative constituency associations are composed of individual
members who live in or are connected with the constituency or have business
interests there, and who give money each year to party funds. In many
associations there are separate sections catering for the special interests
of women; in most, there is a section for 'Young Conservatives' between the
ages of 15 and 30. The Young Conservatives is the largest voluntary political
youth movement in Britain.

     The associations have complete autonomy in the day-to-day management of
their affairs. They are free to elect their own officers, select and appoint
their own agents, raise their own funds, and plan and carry out their own
publicity programmes. They also conduct election campaigns in their
constituencies in their own way, and adopt their own candidates for
parliamentary and local government elections (the former from a list of names
approved by the Party's standing advisory committee on candidates).

     There is a fairly wide variety in the structure of associations
throughout the country, but in most of them the principal officers are the
president, the chairman, three vice-chairmen (those of the constituency
political, women's and Young Conservatives committees) and the honorary
treasurer. The governing body is normally the executive council, which is
presided over by the chairman of the association and served by the agent
in the capacity of secretary. The council deals with all matters affecting
the association and elects representatives to the national and area
organisations. It also appoints, annually, a number of committees, including
a finance and general purpose committee and those dealing with such subjects
as political education, trade union affairs and local government.

     In constituencies where the Conservative Party is highly organised,
branches of the constituency association are set up in each ward or polling
district for conducting normal constituency work. A number of local branch
members are usually named as representatives from the branch to the
executive council of the constituency association to act as a channel of
communication between the branch and the association as a whole.

     The individual membership of the Party is around 1 million.

Labour Party

     Labour constituency associations are known as Constituency Labour
Parties. Within these parties branches may be formed, usually covering
electoral wards in towns, and parishes or groups of parishes in rural areas.
The party has two classes of membership: affiliated organisations and
individual members. Affiliated organisations include trade unions (the most
important category); co-operative societies and branches of the Co-operative
Party (the political wing of the Co-operative Movement - see p 36); branches
of socialist societies or professional organisations which are affiliated
to the Labour Party nationally; and trades councils. Individual members
must be aged 15 years or over and must be attached to the appropriate branch
operating in the area where they live or, for those of voting age, where
they are registered as parliamentary or local government electors. Members
must accept and conform to the principles and policy of the Labour Party,
and they must, if eligible, belong to a trade union affiliated to the
Trades Union Congress (TUC) or to a union recognised by the General Council
of the TUC as a trade union. Women's sections and branches of the Labour
Party Young Socialists provide additional facilities for women members and
for young members up to 25 years of age.

     The constituency parties run their own affairs, elect their own officers,
raise and administer their own funds and undertake their own publicity
programmes. They select their candidates and appoint their agents subject
to the approval of the national organisation, and conduct election campaigns
in the constituency on behalf of the Party.

     The affairs of the constituency parties are controlled by a general
committee, which consists of delegates elected by the affiliated
organisations and branches of individual members; all must be individual
members of the party. An executive committee is elected annually by the
general committee from among its own members to direct the work of the
association under its supervision. The executive committee normally consists
of the officers of the constituency party (the president or chairman, two
vice-presidents, treasurer and secretary, constituency women's officer and
constituency youth/student officer) and as many additional members as the
general committee thinks appropriate. The executive committee may set up
sub-committees to deal with the social and recreational aspects of the work
of the constituency party, with the distribution of publicity material, and
with the usual range of political activity. The estimated individual
membership of the Party is around 293,700. There are an additional 5.3
million affiliated members who subscribe through their trade union
organisations.

Liberal Democrats

     The basic unit of organisation is the local party, usually covering a
single parliamentary constituency, although some may cover more than one
constituency in the same region, county, metropolitan district or London
borough, subject to the agreement of the members. The minimum number of
members is 50. The local party is a successor to the former Liberal Party and
Social Democratic Party organisations in its area. Local parties are
responsible for their own organisation, working arrangements and finance; they
sponsor Liberal Democrat candidates in local and national elections. They are
also expected to keep watch on the legislative and administrative work of the
Government, especially as it affects the needs and interests of the district.
They are responsible for directing the attention of local authorities, the
public and the press to the importance of these subjects, and to the methods
by which Liberal Democrats believe they should be handled.

     There are very approximately 85,000 individual party members.

Constituency Agents

     In each constituency, an agent is appointed by each party as the chief
organiser of party activities in the area. Some of these agents are
full - time salaried officials, who hold certificates (issued by the party
headquarters) guaranteeing their knowledge of election law and allied matters.
There are also many part-time or voluntary agents, particularly in the Labour
and Liberal Democrat parties. The duties of the agent include acting as
secretary to the constituency association and serving as executive assistant
to the local MP. Before elections, the agent is also expected to act as
business manager to the prospective candidate and to ensure that election
campaigns are conducted within the law. In constituencies where there is no
full-time agent, part-time or voluntary election agents or organisers,
particularly in the case of the Liberal Democrats, may be appointed. The
salaries of most agents are met from constituency association funds, but the
Labour Party head office contributes towards the cost of 28 agents in key
constituencies.

Parliamentary Candidates

     Prospective candidates are chosen by the constituency associations of
each party according to its own established practice. Sitting MPs in all
parties have to be readopted by their constituency associations at some point
before contesting a general election.

     Procedure in the Conservative Party is as follows: when a new candidate
is to be chosen, the executive council of the constituency association
appoints a selection committee to which the standing advisory committee on
Candidates at party headquarters submits a list of potential candidates who
have indicated their wish to stand for that constituency. The names of local
party members, some of whom may have put forward their own names for
consideration, are also submitted. When any new local names have been
approved by the standing committee, the selection committee chooses a number
of candidates for interview, and produces a shortlist to appear before the
whole executive council. A series of ballots is then taken, as a result of
which one candidate is recommended to a general meeting of the whole
constituency association. Except on the rarest occasions, this candidate is
formally adopted. In recent years an increasing number of constituency
associations have presented a choice of two or three potential candidates,
chosen by the executive council, to a general meeting, rather than just one
recommended candidate.

     In the Labour Party, when a decision has been made (in consultation
with the national organisation) to contest an election and a new candidate is
to be chosen, party and affiliated organisations within the constituency are
invited to nominate a candidate. A nomination may also be made by the
executive committee of the constituency association but individuals may not
submit their own names. The executive committee of the Constituency Labour
Party then examines all nominations and proposes a shortlist to go before the
general committee, which has the power to amend it. This list is submitted to
an electoral college consisting of individual members and representatives of
affiliated organisations. At this meeting, which is usually supervised by a
representative from the Party's National Executive Committee (NEC)
(see p 18), a vote is taken by successive ballots, until one prospective
candidate has obtained a clear majority of the total votes cast. The name of
the selected candidate is then placed before a meeting of the NEC for
endorsement.

     The Labour Party requires parliamentary candidates, including MPs, to be
reselected between elections. This provides an opportunity for replacement.
Changes to make reselection dependent on a ballot are under consideration.

     The Liberal Democrats' procedure involves the shortlisting of candidates
by the executive committee of the local party or a shortlisting sub-committee
appointed by it. All candidates must be included in the Party's list of
approved candidates. Except in cases where the sitting MP or previous
candidate is to be reselected, a specified minimum number of candidates must
be shortlisted. Shortlists of two to four candidates must include at least one
member of each sex and shortlists of five or more at least two members of
each sex (subject to there being a sufficient number of applicants of each
sex). The exact form of voting is for local parties to determine but each
member of the party is invited to participate. The former parliamentary
candidate may be reselected by a vote at the executive committee of the local
party followed by a ballot of members of the local party. The sitting MP may
be reselected at a general meeting of the local party.

Regional Organisation

     The constituency associations of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal
Democrat parties are grouped into regional organisations which bring together
party political opinion over a wide region and so are able to provide
co-ordinated advice and information for the central organisation and party
leaders.

     The Conservative Party has 11 'provincial' areas in England and Wales,
each having an area council on which all the constituencies in the area are
represented. Scotland is split into three areas, each with an area council to
which six representatives are sent by each constituency in the region.

     The Labour Party has 11 regional councils whose membership is open to
the following bodies: constituency parties affiliated to the Labour Party at
national level; county (regional in Scotland) Labour parties; trade unions
affiliated to the Labour Party and the TUC at national level; district
councils of nationally affiliated trade unions; co-operative societies or
organisations; socialist societies affiliated to the Labour Party nationally;
women's councils; and federations of trades councils. There are also district
Labour parties which correspond to the areas of local government district
councils.

     The Liberal Democrats are organised as a federal party, with autonomous
state parties in England, Scotland and Wales, all with their own national
offices, staff and conferences. The state party in England is further
subdivided into 12 regional parties. The federal party, which holds its own
conferences, shares its headquarters, and some staff, with the English state
party.