We receive no financial assistance from the Conservative Party for our general election campaign in this seat. All funding comes from Maidstone and The Weald Conservative Association’s (MWCA) our own fund raising activities, from the generous donations of private individuals who are on the UK Electoral Role and from supportive UK companies.
We needs funds for many different purposes, including the design and printing of literature, posters and boards, purchasing stationery, maintaining computers and software, paying for phone calls and so on.
Your donation will make a difference, no matter how much you might be able to offer. £5 buys a ream of paper, £50 replaces a colour toner cartridge and £500 produces 30,000 double sided A4 colour leaflets. £5,000 gets a personal 4 page A3 colour newspaper to every home in the constituency, with a bit to spare.
Please make it payable to 'MWCA PPC Campaign Fund’ and send to:
MWCA
3 Albion Place
Maidstone
Kent
ME14 5DY
If you wish to make a donation by another method, such as a bank transfer, please get in touch for details.
You might prefer to donate something instead of money that could be useful in the campaign, such as raffle and auction prizes, t-shirts for printing, or balloons and bunting.
At a fundraising event I held last year we had a donation of a Marquee for the night, a pianist and a magician who performed for free, a bottled water company that donated all of the still and sparkling water, another company that provided the after dinner chocolates, and there was much more. In return donors were acknowledged in our event programme and enjoyed the event themselves.
Supporting the work of a political party is a good thing for democracy - the majority of the Conservative Party's funding comes from the voluntary contributions of private individuals, and helps us campaign more effectively all year round - not just at election time.
Under the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 (PPEA) and the Political Party Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) there are strict rules about making political donations. Anybody, whether a British Citizen or from overseas, can give or lend sums of up to £500 at a time, but over that amount you must be a "permissible donor" which for an individual donor means that you must be on the electoral register in the UK. The list of permissable donors is set out below. If you donate more than £7,500, we are obliged under the PPEA and PPERA to report that donation to the Electoral Commission for publication. For more information, please see http://www.electoralcommission.gov.uk/
You may donate or lend more than £500 only if you are -
An individual on a Register of Electors in the United Kingdom. This includes British citizens, members of the Commonwealth and people from the European Union. We check the registers for you.
A trade union
A friendly society
A building society
An unincorporated association - two or more people carrying on business in the UK at the time of donation (see Note below)
A limited liability partnership
- (Note, evidence of carrying on business at the date of donation must be provided and will be retained for 6 years.)
The following are not considered to be donations under the Acts:
A reasonable charge for admission to a conference, meeting or other event
The purchase price of (or any other charge for access to) a publication
The hire of a stand at a conference at a commercial rate.
Commercial advertising in a political publication, or at an event, if at a reasonable market rate.
Payment for commercial services such as printing of leaflets for a local business.
Such donations are permissible provided:
Shareholder approval is obtained for all donations of more than £7,500. Approval is normally obtained at the Company's AGM, and can be given for a period of 4 years at a time. Companies cannot make a political donation and then seek approval retrospectively.
All donations of more than £500 must appear in the Company’s Annual Report.
More detailed guidance is available either from the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
(www.berr.gov.uk then search for "donations") or by contacting us.
The same permissibility rules apply if giving to a candidate or Member of Parliament, who are "regulated donees" and must make their own submissions directly to the Electoral Commission, except at election time when different rules apply. In view of this, I will not accept donations personally and all donations should be made direct to MWCA using the payment details set out above.
a charity cannot donate to a political party
a joint fundraising event cannot be held with a charity
a charity can have a stand or hold a meeting at a party event and pay a reasonable fee which will not be treated as a donation
a political party can donate to a charity, eg a percentatge of profits from an event, if donors are aware that a proportion of monies are to be given to the specified charity, no conditions are attached to the donation and the donation is not used for political purposes
charities can support a policy of a candidate if in line with its charitable purposes.
More guidance is available from us on request.