Tories spent nearly £17million on 2019 general election campaign

The price of victory? Tories spent nearly £17million on general election campaign that delivered Boris Johnson’s 80-strong majority

• Electoral Commission data shows Tories spent £16.5m at 2019 general election
• That is £2m less than what Conservative Party spent at the 2017 general election
• SNP spent £1m, Plaid Cymru spent £184,000 but Labour data not published yet 

Boris Johnson spent almost £17 million on the Conservative Party’s 2019 general election campaign which resulted in him winning a crushing 80-seat majority.

The Tories spent £16.5 million in the run up to the poll last December, according to official spending data published today by the Electoral Commission. 

The campaign run by Mr Johnson was £2 million cheaper than the disastrous one overseen by his predecessor as Tory leader Theresa May during the 2017 general election. 

However, it is not yet possible to compare the Tories’ 2019 poll spending with that of the Labour Party, with the Electoral Commission opting to release the data in batches. 

Boris Johnson and the Tories spent almost £17 million during the 2019 general election campaign – approximately £2m less than the Conservative Party spent at the 2017 poll

The cash spent by the Tories in the run up to polling day was split into three main categories: Leaflets, advertising and market research. 

Just shy of £6 million was spent on leaflets while £4.5 million was spent on market research and canvassing. 

Some £3 million went on advertising, with Facebook getting about £700,000 and Google getting about £500,000. 

Just over £500,000 was spent on holding Conservative Party rallies and campaign events.  

The Tory spending dwarfed that of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Ukip – the other parties with spending data released in the Electoral Commission’s first batch of data. 

Nicola Sturgeon’s party spent a total of approximately £1 million while Plaid Cymru spent just £184,000. 

Ukip spent just under £9,000 only two years after the party spent almost £300,000.

The Electoral Commission has a legal duty to publish spending returns for political parties but the coronavirus crisis has wreaked havoc with its normal activity. 

The Electoral Commission is yet to publish spending data for Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party

Parties which spent more than £250,000 at the 2019 general election were due to submit their data to the watchdog in June. 

But Covid-19 meant not all parties and campaigners were able to deliver their returns on time. 

As a result, the Electoral Commission has decided to publish the spending data in batches so that people can see it when it is ready for release. 

It is unclear when the 2019 spending data for the Labour Party will be published. 

At the 2017 general election the Tories spent £18.6 million while Labour spent just over £11 million.

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