State funding for political parties, says Alice Thomson

With the general election less than a year away, political parties are trying to raise enough cash to finance their campaigns.

In the 2010 poll, parties spent more than £31m seeking to win over voters, but this was down from the £42m spent on the on 2005 campaign.

In a personal film, journalist Alice Thomson puts the case for MPs to have "courage" over the state funding of political parties, claiming they are wasting time and energy trying to win over donors.

She will debate this film with Tory MP Stephen Crabb and Labour MP Emma Reynolds on Wednesday's Daily Politics, and the full programme will be on iPlayer for seven days,

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