...never planned an election....

The Guardian on 22nd October reported that the Labour Party , which didn't really intend an election, spent of possibly more than £1m when all costs are included.

Three million letters were printed,- the first of a series, to key voters and supporters. These were ultimately pulped.
A media centre in London was in the process of being constructed. Furniture and equipment for it had been ordered and had arrived by lorry at the venue, after Bottler had pulled the plug. This centre was for daily press conferences during the campaign.
Hundreds of poster sites had been booked and paid for. (The Tories had also done so, but will use theirs for a campaign for a referendum.)
Staff had been recruited at union headquarters to campaign in marginal seats.
"Opinion Leader Research" had spent "hundreds of thousands of pounds" on polling, perhaps the very polling that Bottler claimed he did not consider.

These were the costs faced nationally. In addition many thousands of pounds had been spent, especially in marginals, in sending out thousands of letters seeking the support of members and supporters. (Because of the postal strikes most of these reached their destinations after the election had been been "called off".

The sums above are in many cases the best estimates of Guardian researchers and others, with official reluctance to confirm them.

The Conservative Party also spent significantly in the week before the election was called off. The best estimate here is under £200,000, some of which was on poster sites which will now be used in a campaign for a referendum.

But the Labour Party, already £20m in debt and facing a drop in large personal donations as a result of the "cash for honours" crisis, spent at least another million pounds before Gordon Brown pulled the plug. Let no-one claim that election planning was not serious, or that he had no particular reason for calling it all off.

Brian R.