Short Money is the common name given to the annual payment to
opposition parties
Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''th ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
to help them with their costs.
It includes funding to assist an opposition party in carrying out its Parliamentary business, for opposition parties' travel and associated expenses, and for the running costs of the Leader of the Opposition's office.
It is named after
Edward Short (later Lord Glenamara), the then-
Leader of the House of Commons
The leader of the House of Commons is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom whose main role is organising government business in the House of Commons. The leader is generally a member or attendee of the cabinet of the ...
who first proposed the payments.
Cranborne Money Cranborne Money is the common name given to the annual payment to opposition parties in the UK House of Lords to help them with their costs. It is named after Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Cranborne, who was the leader of th ...
is its counterpart in the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
.
Origin
Short Money was introduced by the
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
Government of 1974–76 following a commitment in the
Queen's Speech
A speech from the throne, or throne speech, is an event in certain monarchies in which the reigning sovereign, or a representative thereof, reads a prepared speech to members of the nation's legislature when a Legislative session, session is ...
of 12 March 1974: "My Ministers will consider the provision of financial assistance to enable Opposition parties more effectively to fulfil their Parliamentary functions".
Edward Short fleshed out the proposal in a statement on Members' allowances in July 1974:
The current scheme is administered under a resolution of the House of Commons of 26 May 1999.
Recipients
Short Money is made available to all opposition parties in the House of Commons that secured either at least two seats or one seat and more than 150,000 votes at the previous general election.
The scheme has three components:
# Funding to assist an opposition party in carrying out its parliamentary business
# Funding for the opposition parties' travel and associated expenses
# Funding for the running costs of the Leader of the Opposition's office
Short Money is not available to parties whose members have not sworn the
Oath of Allegiance
An oath of allegiance is an oath whereby a subject or citizen acknowledges a duty of allegiance and swears loyalty to a monarch or a country. In modern republics, oaths are sworn to the country in general, or to the country's constitution. For ...
(such as
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
) because it was introduced to offer assistance for 'parliamentary duties'. A separate scheme (introduced on 8 February 2006) provides funds to parties 'represented by Members who have chosen not to take their seats', providing for 'expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred for the employment of staff and related support to Members designated as that party's spokesman in relation to the party's representative business'. This is calculated on the same terms as Short Money. Other opposition parties have access to Short Money to support parliamentary business only and no equivalent extension for representative work.
2022/2023 allocations
; General funding for opposition parties : From 1 April 2022, eligible parties receive £19,401.20 for every seat won at the last election plus £38.75 for every 200 votes gained by the party.
; Travel expenses for opposition parties : From 1 April 2022, £213,132.53 is apportioned between each of the opposition parties in the same proportion as the amount given to each of them under the 'general funding' scheme set out above.
; Leader of the Opposition's office : £903,907.10 is available for the running costs of the Leader of the Opposition's office for the financial year commencing on 1 April 2022. In addition, the Leader of the Opposition, the Opposition Chief Whip and the Assistant Opposition Whip receive a salary from public funds, on top of their parliamentary salary: £65,181, £34,367 and £19,523 respectively.
The funding helps support parties with a large, dispersed voter base such as
UKIP
The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest pa ...
and the
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
who are adversely affected by the first past the post voting system.
In his July 2015 budget,
George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...
cut Short Money by 19% though the news didn't emerge until the Autumn statement in November. The move was strongly criticised but Ministers argued that other areas of public finance were being similarly cut. Indexation was also linked to
CPI
A consumer price index (CPI) is a price index, the price of a weighted average market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. Changes in measured CPI track changes in prices over time.
Overview
A CPI is a statistic ...
rather than the more generous RPI inflation.
[{{cite news, url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35836460, title=Short money cuts 'compromise' expected, work=BBC Politics, author=Chris Mason, date=17 March 2016, accessdate=10 September 2016]
References
External links
— Research notes from the UK Parliament website (PDF)
Government of the United Kingdom
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
Political funding in the United Kingdom
Public finance of the United Kingdom