Our current prime minister was ‘elected’ by about 160,000 Conservative Party members, yet members of the public have no right to know basic information about them
This includes how many live abroad and whether their identities were verified by the party. Should we be able to know this? How does the role of political parties sit within our constitutional rights and responsibilities?
Writing in this week’s NLJ, Dr Graham Zellick KC delves into the issue of whether political parties should be viewed as public bodies rather than private associations. They were held to be the latter by the High Court in a recent judicial review brought by Tortoise Media against the Conservative Party.
Zellick, a former Professor of Public Law at Queen Mary & Westfield College as well as a former Electoral Commissioner, writes: ‘Fordham J may have been adhering to the authorities, and his analysis and reasoning are indeed plausible, but they fly in the face of political and constitutional reality.’
