A quick thread on @HouseOfCommons short money to opposition parties - and the financial disincentive to form electoral pacts in general elections. Based on this https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01663/">https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-... from @commonslibrary 1/n
The amount of funding that opposition parties is based on the number of MPs elected, and the number of votes they got in the general election. Note pre-Coalition, the #LibDems got nearly £1.75m. After 2015, that was down to under £500k. 2/n
Remember the #GreenSurge of 2014/2015 by @NatalieBen & @TheGreenparty? She visited @CambridgeGreens on a number of occasions. The impact for them was *huge* - short money rising from £66k to over £200k. But with pacts in 2017, that fell back to £112k. Not easy to absorb. 3/n
After #GE2019 (no pacts bar Brighton), @TheGreenParty were back up to £181k. That& #39;s extra full time research staff for @CarolineLucas in Parliament. Note the extra 1m+ votes for @LibDems - FPTP denied them many MPs, but gave an extra £250k funding boost vs 2017/18. 4/n