What price would you put on your right to vote at a general election?
A new survey has shown the value of voters to political parties varies hugely across the county.
In some Sussex constituencies, one vote is worth more than five times a tick on a ballot paper elsewhere in the county.
The ‘Penny for your vote’ report took the amount spent in each constituency and shared that between the number of residents who voted to calculate the monetary value of each vote.
Its authors, the Electoral Reform Society, said the figures showed not every vote was equal and that reform of the current system was needed.
But MPs criticised the report saying it was not even worth the time of an A-level politics student.
The figures show that Brighton Pavilion had one of the highest valued seats in the country, with a voter value of £1.99.
Parties spent a combined £103,000 to woo 52,000 voters in a tightlyfought contest which was won by Green candidate Caroline Lucas by just more than 1,000 votes.
In comparison, the 47,000 active voters of Bognor and Littlehampton attracted just £17,000 of funding from the competing parties in 2010 at a cost of 36p per vote.
Votes in East Worthing and Shoreham, Arundel, Horsham and Chichester were all valued at less than 50p according to the study, highlighting safe seats where campaigns attracted considerably less funding than highly-prized constituencies.
Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley said: “This is one of the least impressive papers I have ever seen, this says inference supports their claims but that reasoning wouldn’t even get you an A grade at A-levels.
“It’s worth remembering what The Beatles said, ‘money can’t buy you love’.”
Wealden MP Charles Hendry, whose constituents’ votes were valued at 73p, said: “It was evident to me from the last election that other parties were not allocating any serious time or resources to Wealden.
“We ran a full campaign, with meetings, leaflets and street events, and I am sure that is one of the reasons why the Conservative vote and majority increased.”
An Electoral Reform Society spokeswoman said: “The funding scandals which have tainted all the big parties have involved a small number of big-name donors.
“People who live in marginal seats have more money spent on them than those who live in safe seats.
“Our research shows why we need to reform both the way parties are funded and the way we vote in our representatives at election time.”
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