Election Expenses

I’ve been digging around into the rules around election expenses. I’m trying to calculate the maximum permitted expenses a candidate or agent may incur in Brent East. Thankfully the Electoral Commission website is a wealth of information on electoral law and regulations.

Election expenses are those ‘expenses incurred whether before, during or after the election, on account of or in respect of the conduct or management of the election’. They may only be incurred by the candidate, his election agent or persons authorised in writing by that agent.

The calculation for permitted expenses for a Borough/Burgh/District Constituency is £5483 plus 4.6p per elector. So how many electors are there in Brent East? According to Brent Council Electoral Services there are 56227 persons on the Electoral Roll for Brent East.

Here’s my ‘back of a fag packet’ calculation. 56227 electors * 4.6 pence = £2586.44 + £5483 = £8069.44 Additionally a candidate may incur £600 of personal expenses without providing individual recipts to their election agent.

I calculate the maximum permitted expenditure at £8669.44

As candidates have to submit their expenses to the Returning Officer within 35 days of the result being announced we’ll see who spent what soon enough.