General Election Expenditure.

The Electoral Commission have published candidates and political parties expenses for the 2010 General Election and they make interesting reading. In Wales political parties spent over £2 million with the Conservatives leading the way with £1.1 million, Labour with £500,000, Liberal Democrats on £330,000 and Plaid Cymru on £145,000. In addition to that, candidates in constituencies have to declare their own expenditure.

In Wrecsam the candidates expenditure was:

Labour £ 9,216
Plaid Cymru £ 3,179
Conservatives £ 9,269
Liberal Democrats £ 12,193
UKIP £ 1,150
BNP £ 400

In Clwyd South the candidates expenditure was:

Labour £ 7,366
Plaid Cymru £ 2,041
Conservatives £ 19,967
Liberal Democrats £ 2,213
UKIP £ 986
BNP £ 400

Throughout the UK each candidate spent on average over £6,000 on their campaign with the 4,000 candidates spending in all, over £25 million with the parties spending approximately £31 million. The total spend on the 2010 General Election was therefore in excess of £55 million which is a lot of money but again way off the spend of an American election.