Momentum release a statement about the Electoral Commission investigation
The Electoral Commission has opened an investigation into Momentum’s spending during the 2017 general election for Labour. We want to update you on why this is happening.
The Electoral Commission has opened the investigation to see if we overspent during the election. The cap in the UK for ‘regulated targeted spending’ is £39,000 for non-party organisations like Momentum. This type of spending refers to any public-facing activity that can reasonably be regarded as ‘intended to influence voters to vote for one particular political party or any of its candidates’. Essentially for us, publicly campaigning for Labour or any particular Labour candidate.
For the general election campaign, Momentum spent £38,743 in regulated targeted spending. We didn’t need to spend any more than this because the campaign was mainly powered by volunteers across the country, which drastically lowered costs. For instance, My Nearest Marginal was designed and developed by volunteers, updated by volunteers and allowed Labour members to self organise rather than be directed by staff in a central office. The only costs were web hosting and a domain name.
Secondly, much of our activity was aimed at mobilising our own members to attend trainings and knock on doors - this wasn’t aimed at the general public. So a large proportion of our spend didn’t count towards the regulated, targeted spending cap of £39,000.
Thirdly, Momentum worked closely with the Electoral Commission before and during the campaign to ensure we met the regulations. This included clarifying a number of points about our spending in the year leading up the general election as regulated targeted spending is backdated a year. The Electoral Commission confirmed that the majority of our expenditure in the year leading up to the general election would not count towards our regulated targeted spend as much of it was spent on unregulated activity such as the Labour leadership election.
We believe the Electoral Commission is investigating Momentum because social movement organisations like us aren’t common in Britain. Momentum is powered by the energy and enthusiasm of tens-of-thousands of volunteers rather than large amounts of money. While our members understand that our campaign was delivered by ordinary people across the country inspired by Labour’s transformative policies, for outsiders it can be difficult to understand.
We managed to deliver a lot for very little. We look forward to working with the Electoral Commission to help them understand and ensure everything we do is watertight. We will also continue to be transparent about what we do and how we do it - we wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Electoral Commission has opened the investigation to see if we overspent during the election. The cap in the UK for ‘regulated targeted spending’ is £39,000 for non-party organisations like Momentum. This type of spending refers to any public-facing activity that can reasonably be regarded as ‘intended to influence voters to vote for one particular political party or any of its candidates’. Essentially for us, publicly campaigning for Labour or any particular Labour candidate.
For the general election campaign, Momentum spent £38,743 in regulated targeted spending. We didn’t need to spend any more than this because the campaign was mainly powered by volunteers across the country, which drastically lowered costs. For instance, My Nearest Marginal was designed and developed by volunteers, updated by volunteers and allowed Labour members to self organise rather than be directed by staff in a central office. The only costs were web hosting and a domain name.
Secondly, much of our activity was aimed at mobilising our own members to attend trainings and knock on doors - this wasn’t aimed at the general public. So a large proportion of our spend didn’t count towards the regulated, targeted spending cap of £39,000.
Thirdly, Momentum worked closely with the Electoral Commission before and during the campaign to ensure we met the regulations. This included clarifying a number of points about our spending in the year leading up the general election as regulated targeted spending is backdated a year. The Electoral Commission confirmed that the majority of our expenditure in the year leading up to the general election would not count towards our regulated targeted spend as much of it was spent on unregulated activity such as the Labour leadership election.
We believe the Electoral Commission is investigating Momentum because social movement organisations like us aren’t common in Britain. Momentum is powered by the energy and enthusiasm of tens-of-thousands of volunteers rather than large amounts of money. While our members understand that our campaign was delivered by ordinary people across the country inspired by Labour’s transformative policies, for outsiders it can be difficult to understand.
We managed to deliver a lot for very little. We look forward to working with the Electoral Commission to help them understand and ensure everything we do is watertight. We will also continue to be transparent about what we do and how we do it - we wouldn’t have it any other way.
