ITV News reveals rise of non-party campaign spending ahead of General Election 2019

  • Report by ITV News Wales & West of England Correspondent Rupert Evelyn

It’s the stand-out growth area for online spending in this General Election. Analysis of data by ITV News shows the rise of non-party campaigners spending in the run-up to polling day.

Non-party campaigners registered with the Electoral Commission have spent more than £600,000 online in the last 30 days (FB data up to November 2) -more than six times the total amount spent in the 2017 campaign.

Figures in the table below show how much money has been spent on Facebook by various non-party groups in the past four elections.

Graph showing amount of money non-party campaigners have spent during election period Credit: ITV News

  • Data for GE2019 is taken from Facebook Ad Library spending for 30 days prior to 2nd December inclusive. All other data from the Electoral Commission

It’s not just the investment there are nearly three times as many organisations than there were two years ago.

The Electoral Commission describe non-party campaigners as individuals and organisations who “campaign around elections without standing candidates themselves”.

Momentum is a non-party group which has been supportive of Jeremy Corbyn. Credit: PA

Some like Labour supporting Momentum are well known names, others such as Capitalist Worker who claim to be “disseminating the truth about Jeremy Corbyn’s extreme economic policies” less so.

Whether high-profile or not they are piling considerable money online during the campaign and must now be considered part of the election landscape.