Unit 1 – Political Parties: Do Third Parties Matter?

Are the Labour and Conservative Parties the only parties that matter?

Or

Do Third Parties Matter?

A question that I think is likely to appear in some shape this summer is on third parties and their impact. Given that we saw some once minor parties breaking through as the 2024 election than this question gives you all a good opportunity to show case you knowledge.

There are a number of points that you might make in this question. Depending of the specific wording of the question you will want to select different points to craft the most appropriate response.

Point 1 – Elections prove that people have more appetite for ‘minor’ or ‘third’ parties.

Yes, between them Labour and the Conservative Party won 532 of the 650 available seats at the 2024 election, 81.8% of the total available. This has been the case since at least 1945 when the two parties won 92% of the seats in the House of Commons. Even as recently as 1997, the two parties won 88% of the seats available, thus demonstrating their significance at the dominant force in UK politics. Moreover, this dominance has helped to convince people that a vote for third parties is worthless and has therefore simply locked in their dominance. Although we can never know for sure, voting figures suggest that the Labour Party was not hugely popular in the 2024 election but was seen by many as the only party whom they could realistically vote for if they wanted to remove the Conservative Party from power. Despite this, both parties are taking a smaller and smaller share of the vote. In 2024, Labour and the Conservative Party won just 57.4% of the vote. This is a far cry from the 1979 election when the two major parties won 80.6%. In fact, the 2024 election was something of a breakthrough for the so called minor or third parties. The Green Party won 1.8million votes, winning four seats and Reform won 14%of the vote taking 6 seats. Both of these parties were surpassed by the Liberal Democrats who won an unbelievable 72 seats off just 3.5 million votes. The Lib Dems targeted their vote at specific Conservative seats in the south and south west of England and it paid off handsomely. This demonstrates that in many places people will look beyond the two major parties to voice their disillusionment with politics, even if they know they will not return the governmetn. Whether or not 2024 is an anomaly of the start of a new trend is yet to be seen. On balance, it looks at those 2024 will be a one off. Given that many saw the election as a foregone conclusion and therefore felt empowered to vote with for their party of choice rather than to make a decision between Labour and the Conservatives.

Point two – The ‘minor parties’ are forcing the Conservative and Labour Parties to adopt new policies

It would be fair to argue that minor parties have forced the two major parties to adopt new platforms and as such it would be wrong to disregard their importance. The Conservative Party have become increasingly right wing in an attempt to stop their voters, particularly many of those who voted for them in 2019 to get Brexit done, from voting for Reform. This can be seen in a focus by the Conservative Party on issues such as immigration and so called anti-wokeism, on the run up to the 2024 election. Similarly, the Labour Party has, in the past, adopted similar positions to that of the Green Party to stave off losing votes from the left wing of their party. This mirrors the situation faced by the Conservative Party between 2010-2015 when Prime Minister David Cameron felt it necessary to offer a referendum on Britain’s place in the European Union to help placate Conservative voters who were considering voting for the UKIP. However, when it comes to politics, what really matters is the power to implement policy, not just advocate on behalf of it. For example, the SNP became the third party following the 2015 election. Despite this, they are further than they have been for a over decade, in achieving the primary aim of a second independence referendum.

The broad churches that both major parties once claimed to be are beginning to break up and this is letting third parties sweep up voters from areas that the Labour and Conservative Party have left behind. For example, the move to the right of the Conservative Party has seen the Liberal Democrats sweep up more moderate Conservative voters in the Home Counties and the Southwest. In 2024, the Liberal Democrats gained 64 seats, taking ultra safe Conservative seats like Stratford Upon Avon, Surrey Heath and Henley. Similarly, despite winning a significant majority, the Labour Party lost seats in more left-wing areas to either the Green Party or independent Pro Gazan candidates. The most notable of these was in Bristol Central where the Green Party defeated the Labour shadow cabinet member, Thangam Debbonaire. Bristol was seen as an area ripe for the Green Party given the younger, student population who were more closely affiliated to left wing ideas. Nonetheless, these broad churches certainly still exist. The Labourt Party,  despite moving to the right, still contains many eminent left wing figures such as Dianne Abbot and John McDonnell. Similarly, the Conservative Party still contains many more moderate voices such as Jeremy Hunt. It was perhaps not surprising therefore that Hunt was one of the few Conservatives able to retain their seat in 2024 given that he was running in the moderate Surrey seat of Godalming and Ash.

Point 3 – Is there such a thing as ‘dominant’ parties in 2025?

A final point to make is that the decimation suffered by the Conservative Party at the 2024 election has weakened the suggestion that there are only two major parties in the UK. It is perhaps fairer to say that there is just one. This can be seen in not just the domination in seats held by the Labour Party but also in their control of the accountability and scrutiny functions in the House of Commons. As it stands, Labour has the chair on 16 of the 20 major Select Committees. They also dominate the seats on each select committee, potentially weakening the scrutiny they will hold over the government. Of the remaining 4 chairs, the Lib Dems and Conservatives have two apiece, suggesting against that the Lib Dems have as much influence as the Conservatives. Moreover, in the private members draw in September 2024, not a single Conservative MP was drawn, meaning that they have no opportunity to potentially forge a new parliamentary bill. Of the 20 names drawn, 4 were from the Liberal Democrats, and 2 of the 4 were drawn in the top 7, meaning that they have a genuine chance of their law being debated and voted upon. However, whilst the Labour Party may be dominant in holding the levers of power in the UK currently, they are perhaps not as dominant in the battle for ideas and media space. After an auspicious start to life in government, the Labour Party has often found itself in second place in many opinion polls, with the Reform Party polling in first place. In fact, the Labour Party in government has often appeared to borrow from some of the Reform Party’s policies, particularly in talking about the ‘tepid bath’ of the civil service, cutting down on benefit spending and increasing defence spending in return. Moreover, the public seem increasingly fickle. Despite winning a huge 174 seat margin at the 2024 election, it is not inconceivable that Labour will be out of power at the next election. Current polling suggests that it is most likely that they will remain in power but there will be gains from all of the other parties at their expense, but particularly gains from the Reform Party and the SNP in Scotland. In effect it is likely that as we reach the 2030s we will see a House of Commons that is divided not between the two major parties but that instead we will see a proliferation of minor parties jostling for influence in the House.

Point 4 – Other Points to Make, Coalition

Another point that could be made is that other parties can be influential in the House of Commons, winning support for certain, unique positions. Currently, the Liberal Democrats appear to be the only party arguing that the UK government should loosen it ties with America since the accession of Trump to the Presidency.  Moreover, between 2010-2015, the Liberal Democrats operated in a coalition with the Conservative Party. It has been said that the Liberal Democrats worked to soften some of the Conservative Party’s more divisive policies and can certainly point to the legalisation of Gay Marriage in 2013 as a something they advocated for and pushed David Cameron’s government into doing. Nevertheless, the repercussions of the coalition were catastrophic for the Liberal Democrats who took the brunt off the publics anger for the austerity of the coalition years and were reduced to just 9 seats at the 2015 election.

Point – Funding

The Reform Party have been taking in plenty of significant sized donations whilst the Conservative Party have lost donors. Individuals such as Christopher Harborne and Jeremy Hoskyns have donated substantial sums to Reform and it has been suggested that Elon Musk is ready to donate up to $100million to Reform. This will strengthen impact that Reform has, allowing them to better promote and advertise the party whilst also setting up regional offices from which they can direct canvassers to target groups.  It is rare for minor parties to receive much money from donors, though they do receive short money which can allow them to compete. Short money is given to opposition parties, with the sums given being proportional to the number of MPs they have. This means that the Liberal Democrats are now receiving significant sums of short money, which will allow them to compete with the two major parties. In fact, in the final quarter of 2024, the Liberal Democrats actually received more in donations than the Labour Party did, which was the result of taking in short money (which Labour do not receive) and donations from individuals and businesses.  Nonetheless, we can assume that as we get closer and closer to another election we will see money being funnelled once again towards the two major parties as donors start to assess that giving money to anyone other than Labour or the Conservatives will not deliver value for money given that only one of these two are likely to form the next government.