The Cost of Getting Elected

If you think you can get yourself elected to public office for free, then think again (unless you're aspiring to no greater office than a parish councillor!)

Getting yourself elected to your local borough council isn't cheap, and getting elected to Parliament will cost serious money. So you'll either need deep pockets yourself, have a wealthy benefactor who's happy to bankroll your political career, or (most likely) you'll have a political party that'll pick up the tab, or at least a significant amount of it.

Fortunately, all candidates who stand for public office must state how much money they spent trying to get elected (whether successfully or not). So with last May's General Election fast becoming a distant memory, here's the full list of how much each of the six candidates who wished to become Rugby's new MP spent in trying to win your vote:

Mark Pawsey (Conservative) - £18,869.29
Andy King (Labour) - £15,801.79
Jerry Roodhouse (Liberal Democrat) - £4,292.79
Barry Milford (UKIP) - £745.00
Mark Badrick (BNP) - £550.40
Roy Sandison (Green) - £249.46

Which comes to a grand total of £40,508.73 spent by the candidates. I suppose at least one of the above will argue that it was money well spent!

Not to be outdone (despite being considerably outspent), candidates seeking to be elected borough councillor for the Fosse ward on Rugby Borough Council have also published their election expenses:

Rachel Watts (Conservative) - £367.85
Robert Bevin (Labour) - £92.70
Richard Gunstone (Liberal Democrat) - £0.00

So if you fancy taking on either Mark or Rachel the next time they're up for election, at least now you know how much they're likely to spend trying to beat you!