Party support

The Conservative Party is on the political right and the Labour Party on the left. The Liberal Democrats are generally closer to Labour in their opinions than to the Conservatives. Each party has its own emblem and colour: the Conservatives have a blue torch, Labour a red rose, and Liberal Democrats a yellow bird.

In order to have closer contact with the electorate (=people who have the right to vote in elections), the Conservative Party set up constituency associations,local party offices coordinated by Conservative Central Office.These raise money for the party and promote its policies. By contrast, the Labour Party began outside Parliament amongst trade unions and socialist organizations, and tried to get representatives into Parliament to achieve its aims. Both parties now have many local branches which are responsible for choosing candidates for parliamentary and local government elections.

Conservative supporters are traditionally from the richer sections of society, especially landowners and business people. The Labour Party originally drew its support from the working classes and from people wanting social reform. It has always had support from the trade unions, but recently has tried to appeal to a wider group, especially well-educated and professional people. The Liberal Democratic Party draws most of its votes from those people who are unwilling to vote for Labour.

Support for the main parties is not distributed evenly throughout Britain. In England, the south has traditionally been Conservative, together with the more rural areas, while the north and inner cities have been Labour. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the situation is complicated by the existence of the nationalist parties. Wales is traditionally a Labour region, though Plaid Cymru is strong. Scotland, formerly a Conservative area, is now also overwhelmingly Labour, though many people support the Scottish Nationalist Party. After the 1997 election the Conservative Party had no MPs representing Welsh or Scottish constituencies. Support for the Liberal Democratic Party is not concentrated in any one area. In a 'first-past-the-post’ system, where the winner in an election is the candidate with the most votes in each constituency, a strong geographical base is important. In the 1992 election, over 17% of all the votes cast were for the Liberal Democratic Party but these were spread too thinly and the party won only 3% ofthe seats in Parliament.

At present, political parties do not have to say where they obtain their money The Labour Party receives a lot ofits money from trade unions, whereas the Conservative Party receives gifts from individuals, especially businessmen, and sometimes from people living outside Britain. The Labour Party would like to have a law passed that forced parties to reveal the source of large donations and to prevent money being sent from abroad.