How much does it cost to hold a general election?

Canada’s Reformation

This general election has been likened to the Canadian general election of 1993, when the Conservative party collapsed from 169 seats (a majority) to just 2 as its vote was split by a new party called the Reform party of Canada. Did it prove to be an extinction event? Neither party prospered in the following two elections: in 1997 the Conservatives won 20 seats and Reform 60; in 2000 their respective totals were 12 and 66. In 2003, however, they merged, with Reform leader Stephen Harper becoming leader of the combined party, known as the Conservative party of Canada. It won 99 seats in 2004. In 2006 it gained power as a minority government with 124 seats (out of 308). Harper became prime minister and remained so for nine years.

So long, farewell

We hear a lot about people migrating to Britain but what about emigrants? How many of them are there and who are they?

– Last year, 532,000 people left the UK long-term, an increase of 39,000 on 2022. – Of these, 98,000 were UK nationals, 202,000 were EU nationals and 233,000 nationals of non-EU countries.

– In spite of anecdotal evidence of Britons fleeing because of poor economic prospects, the number of UK nationals emigrating has declined over the past decade. In 2013 it was 157,000. This may be related to fewer people retiring to southern Europe.

– The numbers of EU nationals and non-EU nationals emigrating has increased over the past decade, however. In 2013 they numbered 141,000 and 171,000.

Taxing question

How many people pay income tax?

– In 2023/24, 35.9m people were liable to pay income tax, up from 31.7m in 2020/21.

– 5.6m paid the higher rate of 40% (up 40.7% from 2020/21).

– 862,000 paid 45% due on income above £125,000 (up 99.2% on 2020/21).

– In 2023/24, the top 50% of earners were liable to pay 90.5% of all income tax and the top 1% of earners 28.5%.

Costly votes

How much does it cost to hold a general election? The government produced a breakdown for the 2015 general election, which cost £114.7m, of which:  

– £2.44m was returning officers’ services

– £70.44m was returning officers’ expenses

– £41.6m was candidates’ mailings

– On the other side of the ledger, £784,618 was earned in lost deposits, meaning the cost of the 2015 election worked out at £2.37 per voter.