Short Money

Short Money is the common name given to the annual payment to opposition parties in the United Kingdom House of Commons to help them with their costs. It is named after Edward Short (later Lord Glenamara), the then-Leader of the House of Commons who first proposed the payments. Cranborne Money is its counterpart in the House of Lords.

Short Money was introduced by the Harold Wilson Government of 1974–76 following a commitment in the Queen’s Speech of 12 March 1974: "My Ministers will consider the provision of financial assistance to enable Opposition parties more effectively to fulfil their Parliamentary functions".

Edward Short fleshed out the proposal in a statement on Members’ allowances in July 1974:

The current scheme is administered under a resolution of the House of Commons of 26 May 1999.

Short Money is made available to all opposition parties in the House of Commons that secured either at least two seats or one seat and more than 150,000 votes at the previous general election.

The scheme has three components:

Short Money is not available to parties whose Members have not sworn the Oath of Allegiance (such as Sinn Féin) because it was introduced to offer assistance for 'parliamentary duties'. A separate scheme (introduced on 8 February 2006) provides funds to parties 'represented by Members who have chosen not to take their seats', providing for 'expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred for the employment of staff and related support to Members designated as that party’s spokesman in relation to the party’s representative business'. This is calculated on the same terms as Short Money. Other opposition parties have access to Short Money to support parliamentary business only and no equivalent extension for representative work.

The funding allocation favours MPs from parties with a large, dispersed voter base such as UKIP and the Green Party.

...
Wikipedia