Rules on election deposits create an uneven playing field and protect the interests of the largest parties

Evidence suggests a multi-party system is slowly emerging in UK politics, but our electoral rules may be impeding its development. In the 2012 audit of UK democracy, Stuart Wilks-Heeg, Andrew Blick, and Stephen Crone considered the requirements for candidates to pay a deposit in order to stand for election, and showed how these had a disproportionate impact on small parties.